Release Date: 01 January 2007
Label: Naxos / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313243020
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: BRAHMS
Description
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Symphony No. 3 • Variations on a Theme by Haydn, 'St Antoni Chorale' Brahms's Third Symphony is surely one of his most poetic, evocative works, with vivid characterization and individuation of themes and their transformations: the bold chordal chromatic opening gesture heralding and underpinning the sweeping arcs of the first theme, the untroubled pastoral second subject, decisive transmutations in development – the second subject now tragic, the first lyric and monumental; the naïve march of the slow movement, with its nevertheless complex phrase-lengths and cadence echoes, the archaic quasi-chorale with enigmatic harmonies at the movement's centre, the concluding rich, yearning violin melody evolved from the earlier cadences; the rhythmic play in the tunes of the third movement, where 'upbeats' become winsomely relocated and, in the trio, beguilingly accented; the vigorous minor-key finale, with its veiled, anxiously mobile first theme, the solemn brass version of the slow movement's chorale, the athletic, seemingly carefree major second subject, the emphatically defiant end to the exposition, development which fragments the first theme, then glorifies and energizes the chorale; finally the transfiguring apotheosis as the first theme slows, turns to major, combines with yet another variant of the chorale, now peaceful and celebratory, and with a meditative, valedictory return of the very beginning of the symphony.The conductor of the first performance, Hans Richter dubbed the Third Symphony 'Brahms's Eroica'; this was really a party pleasantry, though one that caught on and engendered serious discussion in the contemporary press. Perhaps more telling were the reactions of Brahms's friends. Clara Schumann wrote to him how, in the symphony, 'one is surrounded from beginning to end by the secret magic of the life of the forest' and Joseph Joachim, little given to such poetic interpretations, heard the story of Hero and Leander in the last movement. Brahms composed the work in Wiesbaden in summer 1883 and his biographer, Max Kalbeck, poet as well as historian, suggested a connexion with the great monument celebrating the German nation being built close by, the statue of Germania at Rüdesheim. He also speculated as to a possible origin of the middle movements in Brahms's erstwhile plan to write incidental music for Goethe's Faust. It is, however, Kalbeck's third proposal that has caught the minds of today's public – that in this symphony Brahms used the musical spelling of a personal motto, the notes F-A-F standing for 'frei aber froh' (free but happy) and giving the work a special biographical slant. While there is abundant evidence that the young Joachim used the motto F-A-E, 'frei aber einsam' (free but lonely), there is none at all to support Kalbeck's inventive suggestion of one for Brahms. Nevertheless, Brahms was free and, in the main, happy, an
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
