Piano Quartet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 26

Composer: BRAHMS, Johannes
  • Brahms wrote his second piano quartet for piano, violin, viola, and cello in 1861. He later made an arrangement of the piece for piano 4 hands around 1872.
  • Piano Quartet No. 2 consists of four movements:
    1. Allegro non troppo
    2. Poco adagio
    3. Scherzo. Poco allegro – Trio
    4. Finale. Allegro1
  • Just after composing Piano Quartet No. 2, a 29-year-old Brahms visited Vienna for the first time in hopes of building his professional network. While there, he premiered this quartet together with members of Joseph Hellmesberger’s Quartet as part of his professional introduction to the Viennese public.2
  • Fun fact – Piano Quartet No. 2 runs around 50 minutes in length, making it almost symphonic in scope and the longest piece of chamber music that Brahms wrote.3

Sources

  1. “Piano Quartet No.2, Op.26 (Brahms, Johannes),” IMSLP, accessed August 25, 2025, https://imslp.org/wiki/Piano_Quartet_No.2%2C_Op.26_(Brahms%2C_Johannes).
  2. Calum MacDonald, Notes in accompanying booklet, Brahms: The Complete Chamber Music performed by Marc-Andre Hamelin and the Leopold String Trio, Hyperion 44331, 2008, compact disc.
  3. David Forrest, “Concert Notes: Brahms Piano Quartet,” Melbourne Chamber Orchestra (2021), accessed August 25, 2025, https://mco.org.au/concert-notes-brahms-piano-quartet/.

Cut IDs

19674 21693 27278 16214 19675