In the summer of 1886, Johannes Brahms began work on composing his third violin sonata. Its first performance took place in 1888 with Brahms himself at the piano and Jenö Hubay on the violin. Brahms dedicated this sonata, tinged with Magyar melancholy, to his friend, the pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow, and the piano indeed plays a major role throughout almost the entire work.
Norwegian national folklore pervades Edvard Grieg’s third violin sonata. Begun in 1885, it was given its final form two years later and was premièred in 1887 in Leipzig by the Russian violin virtuoso Adolph Brodsky and Grieg at the piano. The sonata is dedicated to Franz von Lenbach in return for two portraits he made of Nina and Edvard Grieg.
