Release Date: 12 January 2000
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 4891030502802
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: BRAHMS
Description
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Symphony No.3 in F Major, Op. 90 Serenade No.1 in D Major, Op. 11 Hans Richter, who conducted the first performance of Brahms's Third Symphony in Vienna in December,1883, referred to the work as the composer's Eroica,leading Eduard Hanslick to add that the FirstSymphony might be considered the Appassionataand the Second the Pastoral. The enemies of Brahms werepredictably hostile. Hugo Wolf, a fervent Wagnerian, was to claim that therewas more intelligence and emotion in a single cymbal stroke by Liszt than inall the three symphonies of Brahms that had then appeared, while to Wagner andhis wife Cosima, Liszt's illegitimate daughter, Brahms was that rude, boorishman with his mediocre music. Wagner himself did not live to hear the Third Symphony, but nothing would havealtered his resentment at comparisons between Brahms and the inimitableBeethoven, whose rightful successor he considered himself to be.In the summer of 1883 Brahms took rooms in the spa town of Wiesbaden,perhaps to be near the young singer Hermine Spies, his Hermione without an '0',whose musical abilities were to serve as inspiration for the Opus 96 and Opus97 songs. At the age of fifty Brahms seemed a confirmed bachelor, but hissister, at least, had heard rumours of an impending engagement with Hermine,who had made her debut at Wiesbaden the previous year. The affair came tonothing, although her Johannes Passion was to continue and Brahms himself wasdeeply moved by her death in 1893. The Third Symphony openswith a brief figure played by the wind and this serves as a bass to the intenseemotion of the succeeding theme proposed immediately by the violins. A secondsubject, in A major, is introduced by the clarinet, accompanied by a stringdrone bass, offering a pastoral contrast to the grandeur of the first theme.The opening motif reappears with particular poignancy played by the French hornin the central development, which closes with a richness of counterpointtypical of the composer. The C major slow movement allows clarinets andbassoons to predominate in the statement of the principal theme, the sameinstruments introducing a second theme, followed by oboe and French horn. Amoving cello theme in C minor starts the third movement, a world away from thetraditional lighthearted scherzo. There is a Trio section, its sombreimplications replaced by the return of the principal theme of the movementplayed by the French horn. The last movement, in which much of the argument ofthe symphony is concentrated, opens ominously, the mysterious initial activityof bassoons and strings, sotto voce, leading to a great storm of sound in whichthe composer shows all his power. The finale is massive in conception, endingnot with the defiance of a Beethoven but with a gentle recollection of thefirst movement.The Serenade in D major, Opus 11,was written during the months Brahms spent at the court of Detmold, its periodof composition overlapping with that of the Serenade in A major. Lik
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Yang/Schwabe/Dt So/Wit
Wolf Harden
Wolf Harden
