Anna Kravtchenko

Johannes Brahms’s annus mirabilis of 1853 marked the turning point in his career. That same year, he composed the Sonata in F minor, Op. 5. Although it still showed the influence of Robert Schumann, this monumental and passionate work revealed Brahms’ emerging independent style. Conversely, the twelve short piano pieces in The Seasons, composed by Tchaikovsky between December 1875 and November 1876, are true miniature masterpieces inspired by tender and dreamlike melancholy. Commissioned by the St Petersburg music magazine Nuvellist, each piece had a poetic epigraph.