Die Lieben von Schumann

Two expansive sonatas – works which are not included as some of the most frequently performed or famous pieces in the piano repertoire – are united by the fact that Robert Schumann had a propensity for them. Schumann called Franz Schubert’s Sonata in G Major D. 894 Op. 78 “the most perfect”, a rare and intimate piece from the composer’s extreme years (1826), and he hailed the debut of twenty-year old Johannes Brahms as prophetic. In 1853, the annus mirabilis which marked the turning point in Brahms’ career and when he met Schumann, Brahms wrote the Sonata in F Minor Op. 5, the third and last piece from this composer’s sonata catalogue.