In 1879, about ten years before Johannes Brahms composed his late, melancholic piano pieces, he wrote the two Rhapsodies op. 79 – two markedly passionate and comparatively extensive works. In a letter to the convalescent Clara Schumann, Brahms spoke in a typically understated fashion about the two pieces “with which you can really run riot and test whether the course of treatment has actually had any effect”. We prefer to agree with Brahms’ friend Elisabeth von Herzogenberg: “the fact that the g minor is my favourite does not make me insensitive towards the intensely prickly beauty of the one in b minor”. Both of these popular works have now been revised on the basis of the new Brahms Complete Edition.
1879年,大約在約翰內斯·布拉姆斯創作他晚期憂鬱鋼琴作品的十年前,他創作了兩首狂想曲,作品79號——兩部激情澎湃且篇幅相對較長的作品。在寫給正在康復的克拉拉·舒曼的一封信中,布拉姆斯以他一貫的低調口吻談到這兩首作品,他說:「你可以盡情揮灑,檢驗治療是否真的有效。」我們更傾向於布拉姆斯的朋友伊麗莎白·馮·赫爾佐根貝格的觀點:「儘管g小調是我最喜歡的,但這並不意味著我對b小調那首充滿尖銳之美的作品無動於衷。」這兩部廣受歡迎的作品如今都已根據新版的布拉姆斯全集進行了修訂。