Brahms: Symphony No. 1 / Tragic Overture / Academic Festival Overture

Description

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)Symphony No. 1 in C minor Tragic Overture Academic Festival OvertureBrahms's symphonic aspirations went back at least tothe time when Robert Schumann in 1853 had introducedhim to the musical world in his press article 'NewPaths', in which he described Brahms's piano sonatas as'veiled symphonies' and publicly encouraged the youngcomposer to write for larger forces. It took Brahmsanother 23 years and several attempts which ledelsewhere before he fully came to terms with writing asymphony 'after Beethoven', as he put matters. This isthe anxiety of influence, or perhaps better theresponsibility of influence, writ large: how to makeoneself a worthy part of a tradition one admires, how torespond to one's chosen past with the originality andpower it ineluctably demands. During composition ofboth the First Piano Concerto, Op. 15, and the FirstSerenade, Op. 11, Brahms thought of each work as apotential symphony, then in summer 1862 he showedthe first movement of the First Symphony to friends, asyet without its slow introduction. Almost nothing isknown of his work on the symphony in the interveningyears to 1876, though for her birthday in 1868 he sentClara Schumann the alphorn theme used in the finale.He titled it for her on this occasion: 'Thus the alphornsounded forth today', and gave it a poetic text, but, as faras we know, melody and poem are Brahms's own. Bythe beginning of the next decade he seemed to have lostheart entirely, remarking to his friend the conductorHermann Levi: 'I shall never write a symphony! Youhave no idea what it feels like, for someone like mealways to hear such a giant as Beethoven marchingalong behind'. Brahms completed the work in October1876, very probably in part under felt competitivepressure from Wagner's opening of Bayreuth andpresentation of the first complete Ring Cycle. Thissymphony was the only work for which Brahms fixed afirst performance before finishing the composition, andhe delivered the score in instalments to his friend OttoDessoff, who conducted the premi?¿re on 4th Novemberin the Great Hall of the Museum in Karlsruhe.That year the University of Cambridge offeredBrahms and his friend the violinist Joseph Joachimhonorary doctorates. Brahms could not bring himself tovisit England, so was unable to accept the honour.Joachim on the other hand came, and he performedBrahms's Symphony at Cambridge on 8th March 1877.The early press reception in both countries was verywarm, and recurrent points of focus were: the chambermusicaspect of the orchestral writing, speculationconcerning a possible secret programme, and therelationship to Beethovenian heritage. This last issuebecame especially important for Wagner and hisfollowers, for he maintained that after Beethoven'sNinth Symphony, only the Music Drama and SymphonicPoem could be justified in the realm of orchestral music.Thus Brahms's competition with Wagner had itsprofound side, and his achievement in this symphonyconstitutes a reaffirmation