Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow. He composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, voice, and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire.

Brahms has been considered both a traditionalist and an innovator, by his contemporaries and by later writers. His music is rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. Embedded within those structures are deeply Romantic motifs. While some contemporaries found his music to be overly academic, his contribution and craftsmanship were admired by subsequent figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg and Edward Elgar. The detailed construction of Brahms's works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers.

Brahms's Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 118, were completed in 1893 and published with a dedication to Clara Schumann. The set was the penultimate of Brahms's published works. It was also his penultimate work for piano solo. The pieces are frequently performed. Like Brahms's other late keyboard works, Op. 118 is more introspective than his earlier piano pieces, which tend to be more virtuosic in character. The six pieces are:

1. Intermezzo in A minor. Allegro non assai, ma molto appassionato
2. Intermezzo in A major. Andante teneramente
3. Ballade in G minor. Allegro energico
4. Intermezzo in F minor. Allegretto un poco agitato
5. Romanze in F major. Andante
6. Intermezzo in E? minor. Andante, largo e mesto.

Source: Wikipedia: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Pieces_for_Piano,_Op ._118_(Brahms)).

Although originally written for Solo Piano, I created this arrangement of the Intermezzo in A Major from '6 Klavierstücke' (Op.118 No. 2) for Flute & Piano.