A careful study of these ballads will show them to be works of the deepest poetry, which, while never appealing to the player in search of the grateful and effective, nevertheless richly reward the most intimate acquaintance, and show themselves full of ideality and musical suggestiveness. That they are devoid of all kinds of passage work and pianoforte effects, as such, is merely another way of saying that they are entirely and exclusively loyal to the ideal and the poetic; and these elements in them must eventually give them long life.
A lighter side of the Brahms cult is shown in the Waltzes, opus 39. There are sixteen of these, all short, and very poetic and not at all forbidding in their manner of writing. One or two of them are quite difficult; as, for instance, No. 6. Most of them, however, are within the reach of players of medium grade.
The later works of Brahms have already begun to find currency in the more advanced musical circles in Europe, but for some time after their first publication their value was persistently denied, and they are as yet entirely unknown to the amateur. The following works have been selected as on the whole representing the later development of Brahms to the greatest advantage.
The first intermezzo in opus 119 is in B minor, adagio. A very ideal and poetic movement, requiring, however, to be played with great delicacy and a deep and musical tone, which rarely rises to forte. The other intermezzi of this book I do not much care for. In the opus 116, the fourth number, entitled Intermezzo, is also a very beautiful adagio in E major, and it is one of the most poetic and delightful short pieces for the piano of any recent master. Both these pieces are of quite moderate difficulty. Of a somewhat more dramatic and diversified character is the second intermezzo in the opus 116. This is in A minor, with a somewhat capricious middle piece. The great beauty of these short, slow movements of Brahms is the moderation with which they are treated, and, at the same time, the masterly manner in which the interest is kept up to the end. The most fortunate illustration of Brahms' treatment of the piano in the dramatic and highly moved direction is afforded, perhaps, by the second of the rhapsodies, opus 79. These are in no respect to be mentioned in connection with the rhapsodies by Liszt, which, as is well known, are somewhat _ad captandum_ show pieces founded upon popular airs. The Brahms rhapsody is a poetic rhapsody, perhaps such as the rhapsodists of Greece used to deliver; and in this particular case the music is very dramatic and strongly marked, and at the same time the treatment of the piano is free and the effect brilliant. It is, however, considerably more difficult than any of the pieces mentioned above except the Paganini variations.