Johannes Brahms

Orchester-/Ensemblebearbeitungen von Liedern Franz Schuberts

This volume sheds light on a largely unknown side of Johannes Brahms, namely as an arranger of works by other composers. Brahms wrote congenial orchestral versions of selected piano songs by Franz Schubert, with instrumentation appropriate to the theme and tone of the original. For example, Brahms uses a large orchestra including trombones, trumpets, and timpani for the somber choral song "Gruppe aus dem Tartarus," but only strings and solo horn for the tender love poem "Geheimes." The volume includes six complete and finished orchestrations and, in the appendix, a fragment that Brahms's housekeeper rescued torn from the wastepaper basket and thus handed down to posterity. An informative introduction by the editor Katrin Eich rounds off this extraordinary volume.