Three composers presented the great violinist Joseph Joachim in 1853 with a belated 21st-birthday gift: a violin sonata of which albert Dietrich had written the opening allegro, Johannes Brahms the Scherzo, and Robert Schumann the Finale. Brahms was just 20 years old and this Scherzo was amongst the first fruits of his friendship both with Joachim and Schumann. It is his earliest instrumental piece, written just before the first piano sonata. Although the whole sonata has long been forgotten, th...