39. Crespo Series
Brahms Violin Sonatas stand at the apex of Romantic music, the radiant G major Sonata was written immediately after the triumphant Violin Concerto, the two masterpieces feeding off each other, both composed for the same violinist, his great friend and fellow composer Joseph Joachim. The A major Sonata exhibits all the grandeur of the composer at his romantic best. Indeed, some would regard it as one of his most songlike works, with a friend of the composer calling the whole Sonata one caress. It is undoubtedly a love song, composed for a beautiful contralto, his songstress of the moment, for whom he wrote some of his loveliest songs. The Scherzo from the FAE Sonata is a early work part of a birthday present for Joachim with movements written by Schumann, Brahms and Albert Dietrich. FAE was an acronym for Joachim’s romantically youthful motto ‘Frei aber einsam’ (‘Free but lonely’), Brahms wrote the Scherzo where jagged, expressive themes chase each other in passionate delight, a friendly tribute to a fellow virtuoso.
