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16 BRAHMS
The
String Sextet no.2 in G major, op.36
was mostly written in Baden-Baden
during the summer of 1864, but the score was not completed until the beginning
of the following year, after Brahms’s resignation from the Vienna Singakademie.
It was first performed in 1866 at the Mason Concerts in New York. Brahms, who
disliked travelling long distances, did not attend. The first European performance
was given on 3 February 1867 at the Hellmesberger Concerts in Vienna.
The critics slated the piece, finding it heavy, prosaic and tedious. No doubt they
had difficulty in accepting the complexity of the counterpoint, which is even more
remarkably refined here than in the previous sextet. Admittedly this work does not
have the same immediate appeal as Opus 18.
Itssecretsareharder tograsp;but it isnevertheless
just as fascinating as the earlier composition.