Johannes Brahms’s piano sonatas were among the 20-year-old composer’s first publications. They were written in 1852–53, with the slow movement of this C major Sonata, which uses the song “Verstohlen geht der Mond auf”, bearing the earliest date, April 1852. With this passionate and highly virtuosic Sonata, Brahms introduced himself to the great of the musical world of his day, including the Schumanns in Düsseldorf.

Clara Schumann wrote afterwards that “... the whole is full of exuberant fanta...