Description

The summer of 1893 proved productive for Johannes Brahms, who composed several significant works during his sojourn in Bad Ischl. Alongside the pieces of Opus 118, he also completed his final cycle of piano pieces, Opus 119. In a letter to Clara Schumann, Brahms described the opening work of Opus 119 as "teeming with dissonances" and said that "every measure and every note must sound like a ritardando, as if one wanted to suck the melancholy out of each single one, with lust and pleasure out of the aforementioned dissonances!" Yet, Opus 119 encompasses a wide range of moods - the lively and light C major of No. 3 provides a surprising contrast, while the cycle concludes with the defiant rhapsody in E-flat major. Our revised edition, based on the Brahms Complete Edition, invites pianists to rediscover the complex and multifaceted cosmos of Brahms' late piano works.