BRAHMS — Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108

Johannes Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108
Hyun Jae Lim, violin
Tianxu An, piano

Performed on Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Field Concert Hall, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia

0:00 Allegro
8:10 Adagio
12:46 Un poco presto e con sentimento
15:45 Presto agitato

The last of Brahms’s three violin sonatas, Op. 108 was published in 1889 with a dedication to his friend Hans von Bülow, a celebrated conductor, pianist, and devoted champion of his music; von Bülow ranked Brahms “after Bach and Beethoven the greatest, the most sublime of all composers.” Though showing the emotional breadth typical of Brahms’s music, the work’s general character is one of great intensity and concentration. In 1890, shortly after publishing Op. 108, Brahms briefly considered retiring from composing—even writing a letter to his publisher to that effect—before jumping back into the fray with the striking compositions of his final years. In the Third Violin Sonata, as in all his late works, Brahms sought, in the words of Styra Avins, to “condense his thought and shed all superfluity.”