A piano score of the recently rediscovered piano piece by Johannes Brahms, Albumblatt in A minor, has been published in an Urtext edition by Piano Street today.
Free sheet music to download and print:
Brahms – Albumblatt in A minor
Listen:
András Schiff plays “Albumblatt” in A minor by Johannes Brahms
The theme reused in the Scherzo of Brahms’ Horn Trio
The $158,500 album
The piece was discovered by the auction house Doyle of New York City, where the “Album Amicorum of Arnold Wehner” was sold for $158,500 in April last year.
The album belonged to Wehner who was director of music at Göttingen in the 1850s and contains musical contributions and quotations from important contemporary composers and musicians including Brahms, Schumann, Mendelssohn and Liszt.
Musicologists believe that Brahms wrote this piano piece in Arnold Wehner’s album in June of 1853, when he and his friend Edouard Remenyi were visiting Göttingen.
Recycled theme
The theme was also used by Brahms in the Scherzo’s trio section in his trio for piano, violin and French horn, composed 12 years later. The new finding is however not a brief sketch but a finished manuscript of a complete piano piece, clearly written and including performance markings.
Who was first?
The album was catalogued and described in Doyle New York’s sale catalogue of April 20th 2011 with the assistance of Dr. Michael Struck of the Johannes Brahms Gesamtausgabe, Kiel. However, earlier this month BBC claimed that conductor and musicologist Christopher Hogwood discovered the piece and that the world premiere was to be performed by András Schiff in a broadcast on January 21. Although Hogwood’s discovery appeared to be slightly misleading and the piece had already been publicly performed, the short video by BBC including an interesting discussion and samples of Schiff’s masterful performance is well worth watching:
BBC Radio 3: András Schiff plays a lost work by Johannes Brahms
The new edition
A scanned copy of the manuscript has been online on Doyle New York as part of their April 2011 catalog, a transcription of it appeared on IMSLP this week and the piece will be included in Bärenreiter’s new edition of Brahms’ Horn Trio to be released in February.
Piano Street’s new urtext score may very well be the first officially published edition of this wonderful little piece. Regardless, we are happy to share it with the piano playing world for free to play and enjoy!
Please share it with your friends by posting the following link:
http://www.pianostreet.com/albumblatt
…and post your comments about the piece below!
/nilsjohan
January 26th, 2012 at 23:27
It’s a very beautiful piece. Thank you for the score, Will go practice it now!
January 27th, 2012 at 9:53
Great to find this score here! I heard Shiffs performance online and couldn’t find it anywhere else. As he says in the video, it could be one of Brahms late Intermezzos. Since it is reasonably easy to play compared to most other Brahms, it has potential to be a very popular piano piece indeed.
January 29th, 2012 at 10:24
The Nash Ensemble performed Brahms’Horn -Trio yesterday, 28th January in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. A wonderful interpretation. Obviously the lately discovered ‘lost’ piece was mentioned in the programme-notes.
I am grateful for the free down-load of this lovely Album-Blatt.
Erika Bulow-Osborne
February 8th, 2012 at 21:25
Thank You very much. It is an easy piece with a beautiful sound. I hope everybody, specially the piano students can enjoy it .Hugs
February 12th, 2012 at 2:20
This is an absolutely wonderful piece.
Perhaps I amy not stand correct, but I might have been the first (or one of the first people at least) to perform this work in the USA–what an honor!–on 1/29/2012, eight days after Andras Schiff, in Kilbourn Hall, at the Eastman School of music. I included it as an encore at the end of my recital and explained the fascinating story of its discovery to the audience.
What an immense pleasure!
Enrico Elisi
February 12th, 2012 at 2:22
P.S.
After studying the manuscript I discovered that the Sibelius (or Finale?) copy available on the website of the Petrucci Library contains several errors, whereas the copy posted on this website reflects what is found in the autograph.
Enrico Elisi
February 16th, 2012 at 12:24
After having a good look at the manuscript and the printed version as well, I am totally amazed how little attention Mr. Schiff gives to what Brahms wrote. His playing of this marvelous little gem is totally boring and lacks any musicality.