String Sextet No. 1 in B‑Flat Major

Brahms felt that he lived in the shadow of Beethoven for most of his life. Just as surely as he put off composing his First Symphony (popularly dubbed “Beethoven’s Tenth”) with two orchestral serenades, so he delayed his string quartet debut with a pair of string sextets, scored for two violins, two violas and two cellos. In many ways this was a dream ensemble for Brahms who, like his early mentor and supporter Schumann, tended instinctively toward the middle registers. It also gave him an opportunity to luxuriate in well-upholstered string textures with a yearning intensity that at times comes surprisingly close to a composer who in later life was considered his creative antithesis: Tchaikovsky. The String Sextet No. 1 (completed in 1860) reflects the 27-year-old Brahms’ heightened emotional state at this time—he had fallen in love with Agathe von Siebold, a strikingly pretty and highly intelligent soprano. After they secretly exchanged engagement rings, he then found himself unable to commit to marriage; the two carried the emotional scars for the rest of their lives. Brahms opens with a radiantly melodic “Allegro ma non troppo”, whose heartfelt central development section is strikingly reminiscent of his beloved Schubert. Brahms thought so much of the following “Andante, ma moderato” theme and variations that he took the unusual step of transcribing it for solo piano. A rambunctious, rhythmically exuberant “Scherzo” then finds emotional resolve in the “Rondo” finale’s soothing lyricism.