The Sound of Reassurance

On Brahms' Intermezzo in A major

The first time I paid attention to this beautiful piano piece was on a mid-autumn late afternoon, travelling home from work. I had it on my mp3 player along with other classical pieces in a compilation album of the 'Best Classical Music' I downloaded from the internet. I fell in love with it instantly as I heard the pristine chorus. 

But before we talk about the chorus, first let's listen to this piece from its very beginning.

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The opening theme is rather modest. In fact this opening statement is repeated three times, before, a circular, series of upgoing and downgoing notes are played. This dizzying array of notes that follow the repetitive opening melody may be uninteresting to the listener. But this is why we can take it as a test of the listener's endurance to pay attention to this piece, despite its apparent dullness in this section. This becomes more challenging as a further series of downgoing dissonance follow.

It is not long, however, before a comforting, most beautiful chorus is introduced - and the listener's patience is finally redeemed. This is when we can feel that the music is telling us that "everything is alright."

Then, the piece takes us to its problematic theme. This fast-paced theme is played twice and each time it ends with a 'question mark' - before moving on to the next theme of temporary comfort. The slow changing notes of this soothing theme, are then followed by the restless problematic theme again. This time, however, the problematic theme is eventually merged to the recapitulation of the opening section. The merge is cleverly achieved by the upgoing 'question mark' repeated until the opening melody is finally reached.

After the opening theme is repeated again, it is followed by the circular theme, now already familiar on repeated hearing. And not long after, we hear the wonderful chorus that ends the piece. Here again, we are reminded by the chorus, poetically repeated at the end, that "everything will be alright."

(This is my rendition of this brilliant composition by Brahms. Enjoy)