Piano Quartet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 26

As with the G minor Quartet op. 25, the origins of opus 26 reach back into the 1850s. However, it assumed its final shape only in summer and fall 1861. While in her first evaluation of the work Clara Schumann felt that the piece would “grow on the listener once he knows it perfectly and has often heard it.” Brahms's friend Joseph Joachim wrote to him after a hasty perusal that he had “grown more and more favorable towards the A major Quartet. The tone of great intimacy and delicacy alternates beautifully with a fresh love of life.” With its use of a “brighter” key, opus 26 is clearly the more accessible of the two adjacent piano quartets.