Piano Quartet No. 1 in g minor, Op. 25

Composer: BRAHMS, Johannes
  • A 28-year-old Brahms finished writing his first piano quartet in 1861. The first performance took place that same year in Hamburg, with none other than Clara Schumann at the piano.
  • Piano Quartet No. 1 has four movements:
    1. Allegro
    2. Intermezzo: Allegro ma non troppo
    3. Andante con moto
    4. Rondo all Zingarese: Presto1
  • Like his second piano quartet, the expansiveness of Piano Quartet No. 1 feels almost symphonic in scope. It’s not surprising, then, that Arnold Schoenberg, who greatly admired Brahms, arranged the work for orchestra in 1937.2 Schoenberg provided the following three reasons for orchestrating the quartet:
    1. “I like the piece.
    2. “It is seldom played.
    3. “It is always very badly played, because the better the pianist, the louder he plays, and you hear nothing from the strings. I wanted once to hear everything, and this I achieved.”3

Sources

  1. “Piano Quartet No.1, Op.25 (Brahms, Johannes)” IMSLP, accessed October 13, 2025, https://imslp.org/wiki/Piano_Quartet_No.1%2C_Op.25_(Brahms%2C_Johannes).
  2. Calum MacDonald, Notes in accompanying booklet, Brahms: The Piano Quartets performed by Marc-André Hamelin and the Leopold String Trio, Hyperion 67471/2, 2006, compact disc.
  3. John Mangum, “Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25,” L. A. Phil, accessed October 13, 2025, https://www.laphil.com/musicdb/pieces/2801/piano-quartet-in-g-minor-op-25.

Cut IDs

41238 21188 41289 10359 13725 20519 27582