Skip to page content

About this Piece

By 1854, the year of his Four Ballades, Brahms already had several large piano works in his satchel. The previous year, 20-year-old Johannes had presented himself to Robert Schumann and his pianist wife Clara in Düsseldorf. Greeted warmly by the two distinguished musicians, Brahms proceeded to overwhelm them by playing his earliest piano works, the first two Piano Sonatas and the E-flat-minor Scherzo. The Schumanns found in his playing “an intense fire, and a fateful energy and inevitable precision of rhythm which proclaimed the predestined artists.” About the compositions themselves, Robert’s enthusiasm knew no bounds. “One has come from whom we may expect all kinds of wonders.... His name is Johannes Brahms” was only the effusive introduction to a lengthy article he wrote in unrestrained praise of the gifted youth.

The modest, unassuming Johannes turned to a far less ambitious project, the Four Ballades. Unlike Chopin’s Ballades (written between 1831 and 1842), each of which is a completely independent composition, Brahms’ works comprise a cycle, the four pieces intended to be performed together.

No. 1 in D minor. Brahms begins his cycle with a genuine ballade, a piece based on a literary work. His source here is the Scottish ballad Edward, with which he became acquainted through a German translation. Brahms relates the bleak drama of patricide (Edward slays his father at his mother’s request) with striking economy, conjuring the dark, tragic gloom of the text. The faster middle section, which seems to be a development of the main idea, begins in brooding terror, the repeated triplets gradually broadening to bone-chilling surges of passion. The fury then recedes, melting into a return to the main theme, this time with a quietly agitated, fragmented triplet accompaniment.

No. 2 in D major. The serenely expressive main Andante theme, with its F-A-F opening notes—said to represent Brahms’ personal credo, Frei aber froh (Free but glad)—contrasts with an extensive middle section in B minor at double the speed. Here heavily accented groups of chords establish a stern mood, conveying a sense of restrained anger. This flows into an almost flighty section in staccato triplets with the hands in contrary motion, followed by a return of the stern idea, which ends with a reminder of the staccato section. The main Andante theme returns and the piece ends with a melting coda in which the right hand plays typically Brahmsian rolling arpeggiated chords while the left hand accompanies in gentle syncopation, also a frequent device of the composer.

No. 3 in B minor. This is the first of many pieces Brahms would compose with the title “Intermezzo.” In the first section, a Schumann-esque instability hovers, as a kind of demonic scherzo bristles with quicksilver energy. This energy is calmed by a quiet chordal middle section that is eventually routed by the scherzo, which in turn gives way to a quiet ending.

No. 4 in B major. Who starts a B-major piece in B minor? Brahms does. And who creates a haunting and wistful melody over a gently falling accompaniment sounding for all the world like Robert Schumann? Brahms again. Schumann received the score of the Ballades while confined to the sanitorium from which he never emerged. Brahms had good reason to pay homage to the composer who was his ardent champion, and he does so in a most touching way. The middle section reaches for an entirely different mood. It is marked “with intense sentiment,” and the sentiment is heavy-laden. Perhaps influenced by Schumann’s grave condition, the texture is filled with nonstop triplets in both hands with a somber melody in the middle voice. When the “Schumann” melody returns, it is carried by a piquant staccato accompaniment until a new, chorale-like section brings a dignified resignation to the scene. Instead of a return to the Schumann melody, the “intensely sentimental” section, now in B minor, brings the Ballade to a close, brightened by a turn to B major. —Orrin Howard