Piano Concerto 'No. 4' in A minor (after Concerto for Violin, Violoncello and Orchestra, Op. 102)

‘The Double Concerto was Brahms’ final work for orchestra. It was composed in the summer of 1887, and first performed on 18 October of that year in the Gürzenich in Cologne, Germany. Brahms approached the project with anxiety over writing for instruments that were not his own. He wrote it for the cellist Robert Hausmann, a frequent chamber music collaborator, and his old but estranged friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim. The concerto was, in part, a gesture of reconciliation towards Joachim, after their long friendship had ruptured following Joachim’s divorce from his wife Amalie (Brahms had sided with Amalie in the dispute.) The concerto makes
use of the musical motif A-E-F, a permutation of F-A-E, which stood for a personal motto of Joachim, Frei aber einsam (“free but lonely”). Thirty-four years earlier, Brahms had been involved in a collaborative work using the F-A-E motif in tribute to Joachim: the F-A-E Sonata of 1853. “I have long been intrigued by the concept of rendering the Brahms Double Concerto into an idiomatic version for piano and orchestra, particularly following my 2009 arrangement of the Brahms Violin Concerto. My inspiration stems from a historical precedent: the piano adaptations of the Bach and Beethoven violin concertos, both executed by the composers themselves. It is with a sense of pride that I present the third “Great B” in this arrangement – conceived, in a sense, as Brahms’ Fourth Piano Concerto.
Historically, it is well documented that Brahms frequently arranged and transcribed both his own compositions and the works of others, a practice mirrored by contemporaries who adapted his music. I am convinced these efforts were entirely justified; thus, I trust that Brahms himself would endorse this project. This undertaking naturally raises the rhetorical question of what defines a transcription, an arrangement, or an entirely newly conceived, reimagined version. I believe that the key to resolving this conundrum lies in the following approach: I sought to reconstruct the original violin and cello parts from the ground up, recomposing the solo voices in an authentic Brahmsian style. Throughout the process, my guiding principle was to envision exactly how Brahms would have approached the keyboard. Crucially, the orchestral score remains entirely unaltered.
Furthermore, this re-conceptualised version offers a highly coherent realisation. Structurally, the arrangement naturally integrates Brahmsian compositional features of the original version, such as small and large triplets, long sustained double trills, and the complex juxtaposition of hemiolas, syncopated rhythms, and shifted upbeats. These elements closely mirror the pianistic texture of his Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15. Even the choice of D major for the second movement mirrors the tonal architecture of the First Piano Concerto, despite the differing home keys of their outer movements. Ultimately, this realisation focuses on more than just assigning the violin and cello lines to the pianist’s two hands; it prioritises the rich interplay of diverse sonic registers, colours, and moods. The core objective was to reimagine the piece strictly as an idiosyncratic piano concerto.
Executed solely out of deep respect and admiration for the composer and its original version, this arrangement aims to translate Brahms’ unique musical language into a new setting without diminishing its original artistic value. In doing so, it offers pianists an equal opportunity to perform and enjoy this magnificent masterpiece, just as violinists and cellists have for over 139 years.”
Dejan Lazic´, 2026