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The year 1893 was the year that Johannes Brahms turned 60, and his birthday was a major event in Vienna. He took another Italian trip before settling in at Bad Ischl for the summer. This year there would be two more sets of short piano pieces.

This is sheer beauty and a heartbreaker. In the Jesse Stone TV movies on CBS, whenever Jesse, played by Tom Selleck, gets depressed and drunk, this is the recording he puts on.

Brahms: Intermezzo in A Major, Op. 118/2

This one is another gem where Brahms spins some excellent melodies.

Romanze in F Major, Op. 118/5

While Liszt was writing atonal piano pieces in his final years, Brahms would not go that far. What Brahms does here is work with tonal ambiguity instead. In the middle section, for the first time he settles into a key and sticks with it. But just as quickly he returns to that cloudy ambiguity.

Intermezzo in E-flat minor, Op. 118/6

This has a beginning that drives on rhythmically, and the middle section is pure sweetness.

Intermezzo in E minor, Op. 119/2

This is a short exercise in chords.

Intermezzo in C Major, Op. 119/3

This is one of his best, a kind of march at the beginning. But in the middle, it becomes something quite different, perhaps a love song of sorts. The beginning returns in C Major in broken chords, then turns to E-flat minor in which it ends.

Rhapsody in E-flat Major, Op. 119/4