Jan Vermeulen Veerle Peeters

Works for Piano Four Hands Jan Vermeulen Veerle Peeters

Brahms had been an unreserved admirer of the hundreds of waltzes and Län- dler that Schubert had composed even before he himself arrived in Vienna. He was just as lyrically enthusiastic about the waltzes of his contemporary Johann Strauss II. It is clear that Brahms, like Schubert and Chopin, took lighter genres such as the waltz very

seriously. This can be seen in the wealth of melody, the variation of rhythm and the lush harmonies of the Waltzes op. 39. These were composed in 1865, three years after he had settled in Vienna. It is astonishing to see how a Northern German could feel so at home in every genre that he attempted; he is completely at ease with the gypsy

idiom and seems also to be Viennese-born and bred.