Brahms: Piano Quartet in C Minor, Op. 60

Description

Brahms' Third Piano Quartet stands out for the extremely involved and complex history of its genesis. A very first version of certain sections – still in c-sharp Minor – had been written in 1855/56, but neither the composer nor his friends were genuinely happy with this version. in 1869 Brahms reprised his work , but still found no satisfying solution. It was not until 1874/75 that he brought the final version to paper, replacing two movements of the original version with new ones. While the "tragic" key of c Minor points to the truly dark, passionate character of the work, the composer actually singled out the mood of suffering of the quartet himself in several letters.