UWM Alumni Celebrate Brahms Birthday

Brahms composed two sextets for strings in the 1860s. Though they were composed within five years of each other, in the same genre of string sextet, and both in major keys, they are remarkably different in character with the G major, Op. 36 having a very ethereal character, heralding the aura of resignation that haunted his more mature works while the Bb major, Op. 18 is genial, warm, rich, and bold.

In a celebration of Brahms life and compositions, The Bb Sextet is an appropriate choice since it was Brahms’ first published work for strings. Strings and piano were the backbone of Brahms chamber music output and chamber music was the thread that bound his compositional life together from beginning to end.

Brahms made a piano four hands arrangement of the variations movement of the Bb Sextet (1860) as a birthday present for Clara Schumann and it is appropriate to celebrate his birthday by beginning the program with this piece.

The G major Sextet, Op. 36 was composed at a time when Brahms’s career was beginning to find an upward trajectory after many doubts as to his ability to succeed well enough to support his first love Clara Schumann and more recently his infatuation with singer Agathe von Siebold. Agathe’s name is cleverly enshrined in the second theme of the first movement A-G-A-H-E (A-G-A-B§-E)

Both of these sextets are personal works imbued with all of the qualities that make us love Brahms and we wish all to enjoy his birthday by sharing our appreciation of these beautiful works.