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JohannesBrahms (1833 - 1897)

Waltzes / Valses / Walzer, Op. 39

HungarianDances / Danses hongroises / Ungarische Tanze


In1853 Brahms embarked on a concert tour with the Hungarian violinist Eduard Remenyi, duringthe course of which he visited Liszt in Weimar, to no effect, and struck up a friendshipwith the violinist Joseph Joachim, through whose agency he met the Schumanns thenestablished in D??sseldorf .The connection was an important one. Schumann was impressedenough by the music Brahms played him to hail him as the long-awaited successor toBeethoven, and his subsequent break-down in February 1854 and ensuing insanity broughtBrahms back to D??sseldorf to help his wife Clara Schumann and her young family. Therelationship with Clara Schumann, one of the most distinguished pianists of the time,lasted until her death in 1896.





Brahmsshowed an early interest in Hungarian gypsy music, to which he had been introduced by hisearly acquaintance with Remenyi and his continuing friendship with Joseph Joachim, whosebackground was similar. In the 1850 she played gypsy melodies on the piano, some of whichwere never written down. The group of ten Hungarian Dances for solo piano was published in1872, after earlier rejection of a smaller group of dances by a less acute publisher thanSimrock, who issued the first set of dances in a piano duet version in 1869. It is thoughtthat the original version was for solo piano, a form in which they had clearly long beenknown to those in Brahms's circle of friends. To the composer these dances werearrangements of what was then thought to be Hungarian folk music, although later research,in particular by Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly was to establish this kind of music assimply part of popular Hungarian art music. Whatever the derivation of their rhythmic andmelodic material, some of it remembered from the playing of Remenyi or heard in casualcafe performance, the Hungarian Dances are unmistakably stamped with the musicalpersonality of Brahms.

Theset of ten Hungarian dances opens with thefamous G minor dance, followed by a D minor dance, with a central D major episode, and athird in D minor, with a lively D major middle section. The fourth dance, in F sharpminor, is of a more expressive cast, leading to a more passionate companion in the samekey. The sixth of the set, in D flat major, frames a slower C sharp minor section inlivelier outer sections, leading to the rhythmic seventh dance and an eighth in A minor inthe rhythm of the first. A dance in E minor is succeeded by the final rapid E major thatrounds of the work.

Thesixteen Waltzes that form Opus 39 werewritten in Vienna in 1864 and published two years later with a dedication to the criticEduard Hanslick, who welcomed such an unexpected gift from a serious, North Germancomposer, who might have been supposed incapable of such Viennese abandon. If the greatsymphonies of Brahms continue the tradition of Schubert, they may be imagined as a tributeto the city where the compose was now to make his home.

The original versionseems to be that for piano duet, a form that had an immediate popular commercialattraction and would have provided Hanslick with music to share with young ladies of hisacquaintance, with whom he was accustomed to play duets. The Waltzes are in a simpler andshorter form than the slightly more complex Hungarian Dances.


Bornin Ankara, Idil Biret began piano lessons at the age of three. She displayed anoutstanding gift for music and graduated from the Paris Conservatoire with three firstprizes when she was fifteen. She studied piano with Alfred Cortot and Wilhelm Kempff, andcomposition with Nadia Boulanger. Since the age of sixteen Idil Biret has performed inconcerts around the world, playing with major orchestras under the direction of conductorssuch as Monteux, Boult, Kempe, Sargent, de Burgos, Pritchard, Groves and Mackerras. Shehas participated in the festivals of Montreal, Persepolis, Royan, La Rochelle, Athens,Berlin, Gstaad and Istanbul. She was also invited to perform at the 85th birthdaycelebration of Wilhelm Backhaus and at the 90th birthday celebration of Wilhelm Kempff.

Idil Biret received the Lily Boulanger Memorial Fund Award (1954/1964), the HarrietCohen/Dinu Lipatti Gold Medal (1959) and the Polish Artistic Merit Award (1974) and wasnamed Chevalier de l'Ordre du Merite in 1976.

Item number 8550355
Barcode 730099535526
Release date 01/01/2000
Category Instrumental | Classical Music
Label Naxos Classics | Naxos Records
Media type CD
Number of units 1
Artists Idil Biret
Composers Johannes Brahms
Producers Martin Sauer
Disc: 1
1 No. 1 in B major
2 No. 2 in E major
3 No. 3 in G sharp minor
4 No. 4 in E minor
5 No. 5 in E major
6 No. 6 in C sharp major
7 No. 7 in C sharp minor
8 No. 8 in B flat major
9 No. 9 in D minor
10 No. 10 in G major
11 No. 11 in B minor
12 No. 12 in E major
13 No. 13 in B major
14 No. 14 in G sharp minor
15 No. 15 in A flat major
16 No. 16 in C sharp minor
Hungarian Dances
17 No. 1 in G minor
18 No. 2 in D minor
19 No. 3 in F major
20 No. 4 in F sharp minor
21 No. 5 in F sharp minor
22 No. 6 in D flat major
23 No. 7 in F major
24 No. 8 in A minor
25 No. 9 in E minor
26 No. 10 in E major
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