Piano Sonata No. 3 in F Minor

Brahms composed his Piano Sonata No. 3 in October 1853. It represents the high point of his early period, encompassing a greater emotional range and conceived on a grander symphonic scale than any of his previous piano works. Brahms explores the sharpest contrasts in mood throughout the first movement (“Allegro maestoso”). In the opening passage, for example, powerful and agitated writing is juxtaposed with a melancholic introverted idea accompanied by funereal drumbeats in the piano’s lower register. Tenderness and intimacy, as well as moments of exultant passion, inflect the “Andante espressivo” second movement. The scherzo (“Allegro energico”), on the other hand, returns to the turbulent atmosphere of the first movement, but with a gentler middle section offering a moment of repose. At this juncture, Brahms adds an extra slow movement, entitled “Rückblick” (“Looking Back”) and marked “Andante molto”, which reflects upon material heard earlier in the work and contains passages of exploratory harmony that could have been composed some 40 years later by Debussy. Rounding off a work that has already covered so much ground in a convincing and musically satisfying manner is no easy feat. But Brahms triumphantly succeeds in this objective, writing a dynamically exciting and amazingly varied “Allegro moderato ma rubato” finale.