Four Pieces for Piano, Op. 119 (Brahms)

The Four Pieces for Piano (German: 'Klavierstücke') Op. 119, are four character pieces for piano composed by Johannes Brahms in 1893. The collection is the last composition for solo piano by Brahms. Together with the six pieces from Op. 118, Op. 119 was premiered in London in January 1894.

The Four Pieces for Piano were published in 1892 and 1893 along with three other collections of smaller piano pieces: the Seven Fantasias Op. 116, Three Intermezzos Op. 117, Six Pieces for Piano Op. 118, and Four Pieces for Piano Op. 119.

Each of the first three pieces is called an intermezzo, and the last a rhapsody (the German spelling Rhapsodie is also common in English publications). The fact that Brahms originally intended the title ‘Capriccio’ for his earlier Rhapsody, Op. 79, No. 1, suggests that he used such terms rather loosely. ‘Intermezzo’ can be seen as an umbrella term under which Brahms could collect anything which he regarded as neither capricious nor passionate. He completed these pieces during his summer holiday in Ischl, Upper Austria, in 1893, the first intermezzo being written in May and the following three pieces in June.

Since Brahms has combined these 18 character pieces in collections, he may have included some earlier compositions, and it is quite possible, although there is no definite proof, that some works—such as the E flat major rhapsody—may have been conceived before 1892. Two earlier collections of smaller lyric piano pieces, Eight Pieces for Piano Op. 76, and Two Rhapsodies Op. 79, date from 1871-79 (published 1879 and 1880 respectively).

The poetic mood of the first intermezzo from Op. 119 belies its vague title. In a letter from May 1893 to Clara Schumann, Brahms wrote:

"I am tempted to copy out a small piano piece for you, because I would like to know how you agree with it. It is teeming with dissonances! These may [well] be correct and [can] be explained—but maybe they won’t please your palate, and now I wished, they would be less correct, but more appetizing and agreeable to your taste. The little piece is exceptionally melancholic and ‘to be played very slowly’ is not an understatement. Every bar and every note must sound like a ritard[ando], as if one wanted to suck melancholy out of each and every one, lustily and with pleasure out of these very dissonances! Good Lord, this description will [surely] awaken your desire!"

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