PROGRAMME NOTES

JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833 – 1897)

String Quartet No. 3 in B-flat major, Op. 67

I. Vivace

II. Andante

III. Agitato (Allegretto non troppo)

IV. Poco allegretto con variazioni

Brahms, who held his first two string quartets from publication while he revised them for almost 20 years, had no problems with his third. He had turned to this string quartet to relieve his musical mind from the profound turbulences of his 1st symphony. He noted that he had tried to compose several smaller “trifles” so as not to look at any more symphonic monuments for a while, and in his usual self-critical manner, this quartet was among those “trifles”.

But what a trifle it is! The happy mood at the outset harks back to Haydn, and the humour in the first movement is a good sense of this: the instruments play with different time signatures at various points, sounding like dancers trying to choose a dance to do together. The slow movement is full and lyrical, Brahms at his best. It is of course not without contrast, and the interruptions are fully dramatic moments, almost symphonic in nature. Both middle movements are very typical Brahms at his most innig, with deeply felt melody and harmony. His tactic of leaving the viola unmuted in the third movement while the others dampen their sound produces a haunting mid-heavy sonority, which he described as “the tenderest” movement he had ever written.

The finale is a set of variations, and the viola remains prominent here. One of the musical forms that Brahms loved, these eight variations unfold with great poise, eventually resulting in a 6/8 that is firmly related to the opening of the whole quartet nearly half an hour back. This composerly sleight-of-hand gives the work a tight sense of unity, and Brahms would always look back on Op. 67 as the favourite of his three quartets: filled with inspiration, real sentiment, and a great joy, it has remained a firm concert favourite since.