Brahms composed three movements of what would become the Sonata no.1 for cello and piano in 1862. He added a brilliant fugal finale three years later, shortly after the death of his beloved mother Christiane and in the midst of work on Ein deutsches Requiem. The originally envisaged slow movement was dropped, perhaps to prevent the work and its imposing outer movements from collapsing under its own weight. Brahms dedicated the sonata to Josef Gänsbacher, an esteemed voice teacher who had played a crucial role in his election as conductor of the Vienna Singakademie. Gänsbacher's qualities as a cellist, however, were questionable. When he played through the sonata with the composer during a small concert for friends, Brahms raged so furiously at the keyboard that Gänsbacher could scarcely hear himself. 'Consider yourself lucky,' was Brahms's gruff response to Gänsbacher's desperate pleas, after which he continued to pound the keys with undiminished vigour.

To compliment these masterpieces, Amy Norrington and Piet Kuijken delved into Brahms's songs. In Es träumte mir and Ach, wende diesen Blick (op.57 nos. 3 and 4), G.F. Daumer's sensual verses inspired Brahms to some of his most personal compositions, creating music that speaks of hopeless and unrequited love. The scores are not surprisingly larded with musical references to Clara Schumann, his lifelong but unattainable love. Die Mainacht, op.43 no.2, is bathed in moonlight and is one of Brahms'a greatest evocations of a wanderer strolling alone through an Arcadian idyll.