Review

Johannes Brahms
Sonata No.1:

Arranged by Ralph Sauer

Trombone and piano

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2003 / 2019
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Score and solo part

Primary Genre: Solo Tenor Trombone - with piano

This is a transcription of Brahms’ first ‘cello sonata. He wrote the first three movements in 1862, the Finale in 1865 when he was 32, preceding his first Symphony by nearly ten years. In that year, his mother died, and Clara Schumann ended her affair with his friend, Theodor Kirchner. It is emotionally intense and powerful music; both parts are quite demanding, and as so often in Brahms, not always quite in step with each other. The three movements are marked Allegro non troppo, Allegretto quasi Menuetto and Allegro.

The transcription remains in its original key, E minor, with the Allegretto in A minor. Most of the original solo part is included; the only notes omitted are in a few short passages where the soloist shadows the bass line in the piano part. Out of 288 measures, there are only 50 full measures of rest for the soloist, more than half of them in the first movement, but the arranger provides an optional tacet of 20 measures in the repeat of the trio section in the Allegretto, which is in F-sharp minor. The overall tessitura is high; the range is C–d² (optional e²). The part is given in bass and tenor clef as appropriate. Wherever possible, rest measures have been positioned at the end of the page to facilitate turning. This is a significant contribution to the trombone literature from a period not well represented at present, a challenging piece whose style is remarkably well suited to our instrument.