Brahms’s First Violin Sonata in G major is also known by the sobriquet “Regenliedsonate” (Rain Sonata) because its final movement quotes melodic motifs from his two songs “Regenlied” and “Nachklang” (which likewise has rain as its subject). The dotted opening motif of the finale already pervades the first two movements, thereby contributing to the inner cohesion of this wonderfully expressive, elegiac work.

Brahms’s contemporaries enthusiastically received this sonata, which was completed in ...