Brahms, the American composer?

Brahms’ String Sextet No. 2 in G major was given its first performance in Boston in 1866. Actually, Brahms composed most of the work in the bucolic setting of Lichtental, near Baden-Baden, in 1864-65. This transatlantic sextet will be my featured work on this week’s “Music from Marlboro.”

Brahms, ever in love, concealed the name of his most recent crush, Agathe von Siebold, in the first movement. She’s represented by the notes A-G-A-H-E. (In German, “H” is B-flat.) The move may have been a little tacky, since at the time he happened to be staying with his other crush, Clara Schumann. But he was, after all, 33 years-old. Brahms being Brahms, nothing came of either infatuation – at least that we know of.

Brahms’ Sextet received its European premiere the next month in Zurich, but I’m claiming it as American music.

We’ll hear it performed at the 1967 Marlboro Music Festival by violinists Pina Carmirelli and John Toth, violists Philipp Naegele and Caroline Levine, and cellists Fortunato Arico and Dorothy Reichenberger.

Brahms puts the “sex” in “sextet,” on this week’s “Music from Marlboro,” this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page

PHOTO: Brahms, rocking a widow’s peak, in 1866