JOHANNES BRAHMS

Renowned for her engaging and insightful interpretations, young German pianist Elisabeth Brauß performs one of Brahms’s final solo piano works. The first in his Op. 119 set of four Klavierstücke, this Intermezzo in B minor is, in the composer’s own words, “exceptionally melancholic”. After a gently flowing opening, based on falling thirds, the more lilting central section builds to a powerful, yearning climax before the music returns to the first theme. Brauß brings warmth, sensitivity and a magical use of rubato to this introspective miniature masterpiece, which Brahms’s friend Clara Schumann gratefully received as a “magnificent gift”.