Clara and Agathe

The next event in the Sheffield Chamber Music Festival Brahms Day explores his deeply personal second String Sextet

Embedded within Brahms’s glorious Sextet are two coded melodies that give a rare glimpse into the composer’s personal life. Clara’s theme, heard in the slow movement, can be traced to a letter Brahms wrote to Clara Schumann in 1855 in which he added the tune as a personal message. Violinist Joseph Joachim also noticed an allusion in a passionate section of the first movement to Agathe von Siebold, a young singer to whom Brahms was briefly engaged. However, the light-hearted finale carries an air of bravado, possibly intended to demonstrate that he was ready to leave matters of the heart behind him.

Programme

• BRAHMS: Sextet in G Op.36