Variations on a Theme by Haydn, op. 56a
performed Feb 24, 2002

Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg, Germany, on May 7, 1833. He first studied music with his father, a double-bass player for the Hamburg opera; subsequently he studied composition with Eduard Marxsen. Brahms was a talented pianist, giving his first public recital at the age of 14, and making a living by playing in taverns and dance halls.

On a concert tour in 1853 as accompanist for the Hungarian violinist Eduard Remenyi, Brahms met Franz Liszt, who praised the 20-year-old's Scherzo in E Flat Minor and his piano sonatas. Brahms, however, never became personally friendly with Liszt, and in 1860 he signed a manifesto attacking the so-called Music of the Future, which Liszt championed. More fruitful for Brahms was his meeting with Robert Schumann, who hailed the young composer as the coming genius of German music and arranged for the publication of his first songs and piano sonatas. Schumann died in 1856, and Brahms remained a devoted friend of his widow, Clara Wieck Schumann, until her death in 1896. Brahms never married, although he had a large circle of friends and patrons.

After Brahms was rejected for a post as conductor in Hamburg in 1862, he visited Vienna and later (1868) made his home there, originally working as a choral conductor. Brahms conducted the orchestra of the Society of the Friends of Music in Vienna from 1872 to 1875, after which he devoted himself entirely to composition. After a brief lapse in productivity, Brahms made his will in 1891 and then embarked with renewed vigor on the composition of many of his best works. These works were published after Brahms died in Vienna on April 3, 1897.

Brahm's Variations on a Theme by Haydn, op. 56a, have a curious history. We now know that Haydn had nothing to do with these magnificent variations. Though Brahms did not know that, this achievement of turning an obscure tune into one of the most beloved themes in music is surely more significant that its pedigree. Brahms' friend, Carl Ferdinand Pohl, the author of an important early biography of Haydn, first showed Brahms the theme he would later make famous. Brahms had always been exceptionally interested in older music; he closely studied the six recently discovered wind serenades Pohl attributed to Haydn. The second movement of one, in B-flat Major, particularly attracted him. He wrote it out and put it in a folder labeled "copies of outstanding masterpieces of the 16th-18th centuries for study purposes" that he had been compiling for years. Brahms wrote the words "Chorale St. Antoni" next to the theme. In May of 1873 Brahms started to composer a set of variations for two pianos on the St. AntoAntoni theme. On August 20, he and Clara Schumann played through the work together. Sometime that summer, Brahms also began an orchestra version of the variations, which was premiered on October 4 by the Vienna Philharmonic, and was rapturously received. The eight variations were so imaginative and well crafted, they were immediately recognized as something unique and original. Brahms follows with a further innovation in the finale, fashioning a five-measure bass line that he repeats, unchanged, seventeen times - the strictness of that formula inspiring him to new heights of invention. The work ends in triumph with the full restatement of the theme. And where did that theme come from? It is now believed that Brahms' beloved theme is the work of Haydn's star pupil, Ignaz Pleyel. As for Brahms' "St. Antoni Chorale" subtitle, that may be his alone!