Important Brahms manuscript goes to Lübeck
The Brahms-Institut Lübeck has acquired the manuscript of the song "Agnes" op. 59, no. 5, which came from the collection of the Swiss composer Louis Koch. The song was offered by Brahms to the Winterthur publisher Rieter-Biedermann in 1873.
The institute, which is affiliated with the Lübeck University of Music (MHL), bought the leaves at auction for 70,000 euros. The autograph was created in spring 1873 based on a text by the poet Eduard Mörike. The three-and-a-half page manuscript is a fair copy by Johannes Brahms.
Brahms took up Mörike's folk tone in his 72-bar setting. The compositional highlight of the song lies in the artful construction of the constantly changing meter from triple meter to duple meter. In. October 1873 Brahms sent Agnes together with other songs from Opus 59 to his publisher Rieter-Biedermann in Winterthur for publication and recommended them as "particularly lovely, recommendable, pleasant, only occasionally difficult, moral, God-fearing, in short 'Lieder' prima Sorte."
The Brahms-Institut is planning a detailed presentation of the new acquisition at an event in the summer semester. The date has not yet been set.
