NSO Chamber Concerts - The Love of Spring

How can one hold on to youth? Through joyful snapshots, love notes, reunions after long absences, or perhaps in the bittersweet act of saying goodbye.

In chamber music, the string sextet offers a uniquely rich palette of sound, a form that captivated Brahms during the first part of career. His two String Sextets, composed in his early thirties, reflect a period brimming with vitality and emotional depth.

The First Sextet pays homage to the classical maestros—Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert—with polished craftsmanship and the radiant warmth, that has earned it the affectionate nickname “Sextet of Spring.” The Second Sextet, by contrast, bears a more intimate secret: Brahms subtly inscribed the name of a long-lost love, a fiancée whose engagement he would later dissolve, imprinting upon it a lifetime’s worth of unfulfilled longing and poignant remembrance.

Theodor Kirchner, a contemporary composer and pianist, admired Brahms’s music and shared his passion for the zither. He arranged both sextets for piano trio, simplifying the instrumentation while preserving the original’s vibrant energy. Brahms himself praised the adaptations, recognizing in them a heartfelt vitality—one that continues to bring warmth, brilliance, and youthful spirit to performers and audiences alike.