Hi,
I want to ask about those exercises. Are they just mechanical exercises like Hanon, or they are etudes, in which they should be played musically too ? And are they important to develop technique ??
I wonder if by questioning whether they are etudes, you mean are they concert pieces. They are definitely not concert pieces, though I think some poor soul has recorded them. Can you imagine going to a concert of Brahms excercises numbers 1-7, and then 13-17? Oh God.
They are important to develop techniques related to Brahms' music in particular. Charles Rosen, the pianist and musicologist, wrote a terrific article about Brahms piano style and how Brahms deliberately cultivated an awkwardness and difficulty to his writing (you can find this essay in "Critical Entertainments"). Part of Rosen's thesis is that Brahms composed music using typical elements of the Lisztian school, such as octaves or parallel sixths, but then subverted their usage by making them have awkward melodic contours, or pacing them incredibly fast, or by assigning them the pianissimo dynamic, rather than the Lisztian double forte.
Passages from the concertos especially are addressed in these excercises. As far as for a universal technique, I don't think they are as useful, because Brahms' style of writing for the piano was quite original and individual in this sense. People often compare Medtner to Brahms, but Medtner was apparently always at pains to make sure his music was pianistic, and Brahms had the opposite attitude (always making sure to make it awkward).
Walter Ramsey
Topic: Brahms 51 exercises