Behind the Music:
Brahms: Intermezzo in A Major, Op. 118 No. 2
This Brahms Intermezzo is a favorite with most pianists, and with audiences as well. The opening motif is like a pleading question that cannot be answered. There is a haunting sense of loneliness throughout. Yet tenderness pervades. While music is, after all a wordless language, one might describe the feeling of this piece as “smiling through tears.”