Brahms composed 21 Hungarian dances for piano four hands of which dances one and five are the most famous ones. Later he reworked the first 10 dances to solo piano pieces. In composing dance no. 5 Brahms used music from the csárdás "Bártfai emlék" a Hungarian folk dance, but the music was composed by the Hungarian composer Béla Kéler. In this dance no. 5 there are many changes in speed and dynamics and I tried to include the latter as much as possible.
Swan Songs or in German Schwanengesang. As far as I know, there are a few transcriptions for solo piano among others by Liszt, Horn and Sibelius. PGS uses the latter transcription. The song text in German is really beautiful and is in five couplets of four lines. The first couplet says “Leise flehen meine Lieder, Durch die Nacht zu dir; In den stillen Hain hernieder, Liebchen, komm zu mir!” or in English “Softly flow my songs, through the night to you; into the silent bushes, darling come to me”. The last couplet ends with the begging “Komm, beglücke mich!” or “Come, make me happy”.
This Brazilian Bossa Nova isn’t the type of music that allows you to sit still on your chair. Neither does it leave your head easily. By the way, Ipanema is a fashionable seaside neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro.