Anselm Kersten:

>In the October 28th 1853 issue of the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik, Robert
>Schumann wrote his last review after a silence of 10 years.  In it, he
>hailed a new star in the musical firmament: Brahms.  The review was of
>his piano sonatas opp.1, 2 and 5.  Does anyone know whether this review
>was only of the printed music, or of a performance by Brahms himself?
>(I'd guess the latter; if so, did Brahms really play three sonatas in
>one go?).

Interesting.  Schumann himself doesn't really make this clear.  He writes
of Brahms: "Sitting at the piano he began to disclose wonderful regions
to us.  We were drawn into even more enchanting spheres.  Besides, he
is a player of genius who can make of the piano an orchestra of lamenting
and loudly jubilant voices.  There were sonatas, veiled symphonies rather;
songs the poetry of which would be understood even without words, although
a profound vocal melody runs through them all; single piano pieces, some
of them turbulent in spirit while graceful in form; again sonatas for
violin and piano, string quartets, every work so different from the
others that it seemed to stream from its own individual souce."

Obviously Brahms did play for him.  I doubt, however, he was playing
from printed editions, since the quartets, for example, were pulbished
in the 1860s.  Maybe he was playing from manuscripts.

Steve Schwartz