16 Waltzes

Brahms was living in the waltz capital of Vienna when he wrote these 16 short works for four hands in 1865 and published them the following year. There is an intimacy about them, not least physically, in the way they bring the performers together to play side by side. Brahms would often play his music alongside pianist and composer Clara Schumann, with whom he formed a long and close friendship. He also arranged these works for two hands. They show his mastery of harmonic nuance and exploit the piano’s full expressive range. Continuing in the tradition of Schubert, whose work Brahms had been editing, the Op. 39 waltzes take us through a spectrum of different moods—each has its own character: the upbeat tempo giusto of No. 1, in B major, is quite different from the elegant lyricism of the E-major waltz that follows. And hear how Brahms explores the key relationships between waltzes to expressive effect: the melancholic No. 4 in E Minor contrasting with the stately calm of the E Major No. 5, for example. More than mere light entertainment, there is a depth to these short works—in the yearning C-sharp minor No. 7 and the darkly atmospheric D Minor No. 9, for example. Op. 39 was dedicated to the music critic Eduard Hanslick, a friend who, like Brahms, opposed the music of the New German School of Wagner and Liszt.