A pianist himself, Brahms knew the instrument more intimately than any other.  Although his total compositional output spans diverse genres, his piano music opened the way for those other compositions, and manifested itself in his final years as a consummate body of work unto itself. Therefore, his piano music offers a view of the intellectual and artistic development of the composer.

Brahms drew on the techniques of earlier choral music to organize his melodic and contrapuntal framework, and to evoke the passion, consolatory spirit and national pride of the chorale.  His piano music demonstrates the way in which he carries the historical heritage of Renaissance and Baroque choral music into the sphere of instrumental music.  By integrating past idioms into his own vocabulary, Brahms created works of remarkable ingenuity.