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Brahms's second violin sonata is sometimes called the Thun sonata because it was composed at the Swiss lake, a beloved retreat that Brahms visited for three summers in a row, starting in 1886. Here his inner feelings were released. He wrote the sonata "while waiting for the arrival of a dear friend". The friend in question was the young, beautiful singer Hermine Spies, with whom he had a very intense and noted love affair at the time. This may also be the explanation for why Brahms quotes a couple of his own songs in his bright and charged music, the lyrics of which can be given loving associations.