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59
GEOFFROY COUTEAU
It was during the summer of 1893, while putting the finishing
touches to a new edition of the complete works of Schumann under
the general editorship of Clara, that Brahms composed the six
Klavierstücke
of op.118 and the four of op.119. There is no novelettish
coincidence here – life is always defter than novels in that respect:
these pieces which, like those of the preceding opuses, comprise
meditative intermezzos, legendary ballades (even when they call
themselves rhapsodies, as we have seen) and even a romance (a
unique occurrence in his pianistic output), are all intimate avowals,
the last Brahms composed, which he addressed, once again, one
last time, to Clara (op.118 is specifically dedicated to her). Perhaps,
through Clara, he also addressed them to the man he admired so
much and who had opened his wings for him, forty years before.
And perhaps, through Robert and Clara Schumann, it was for the
young eagle,too,that hewrote thesepages,which come togripswith
resignation in gently melancholic fashion and recall heroic dreams
with tender nostalgia. They endwith a final ballade, impetuous and
poetic, like the landscapes of north Germany, and like the young
eagle he once was and the young eagle that every interpreter must
find within himself or herself in order to appropriate this œuvre.