unexpected music
Life in Vienna is not easy for Johannes Brahms. He has just left the leadership of the Musikverein after three years of difficulties due to his poor skill with the baton and neglect of the administrative matters related to his position. He is very clear that his purpose in this world is to compose music and for years Robert Schumann’s advice to write music for orchestra has come to mind.
The international prestige achieved with the German Requiem is reinforced by the good reception of his last compositions from 1873, among which the pair of string quartets opus 51 stand out, a genre in which Beethoven seemed to have already said everything. Furthermore, the success of Haydn’s Variations on a Theme motivated him to finish the symphony he had been thinking about for more than twenty years.
Brahms was always obsessed with the figure of Beethoven and how complicated it would be to write a symphony feeling his weight on the shoulders. But once freed from this burden, he composed a masterful work that opened a new window of musical Romanticism. Brahms was inspired by the tradition of classical forms and Bach’s counterpoint to incorporate very unique contributions of his own.
As Beethoven did in his Ninth Symphony (in the same key as Brahms’s first), Johannes moves from autumnal darkness into light. Brahms’s most remarkable innovation is the concept of the development in variation of the themes presented at the beginning of each movement, as opposed to the classical tendency to repeat them in a more literal way.
Brahms decided to premiere his First Symphony in 1876 in Karlsruhe, far from the city of music, where Wagner’s environment was a threat to his professional career. At that time, the Vienna Philharmonic was directed by Hans Richter, related to the composer of Tristan and Iseult, which greatly worried Johannes.
In the genesis of the First Symphony, aspects such as the baroque and classical tradition, the influence of Beethoven, the proposals of Robert Schumann and the continuous need for Clara’s approval converged. Precisely, in the fourth movement of this work, the horns play an alpine melody that Brahms transcribed years ago for the piano as a congratulations on Clara’s birthday.
Hans von Bülow called Brahms’ First Symphony Beethoven’s Tenth Symphony. Despite the proximity between the two works, each one contains the personality and conflicts of its creator, condensed into a message addressed to all humanity.
(The end)
The four Brahms symphonies will be presented at the “Víctor Villegas” Regional Auditorium on the same weekend (March 23 and 25, 2023).
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