Pitts Sanborn

“ Having launched a first symphony, Brahms composed a second within a year. However, he kept the writing of it so secret that nobody, we are told, knew anything about it till it was completed. Then, when he did divulge the secret, he was very demure. In September, 1877, he wrote to Dr. Billroth of Vienna, who was a patron of music as well as an eminent surgeon: “I do not know whether I have a pretty symphony; I must inquire of skilled persons.” He meant Clara Schumann, Otto Dessoff, and Ernest Frank. ”

“ JOHANNES BRAHMS
3 FOREWORD
This pamphlet about the most important compositions in which Brahms employs the orchestra, like its predecessor about Beethoven’s symphonies, makes no claim to originality and no secret of indebtedness to treatises that are open to us all. It is addressed to the radio audience of The Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, and its only object is to present in concise form some information concerning an inexhaustible subject that radio listeners may find of service. ”

“ The second subject, nostalgic in its wistfulness, appears in the violas and ’cellos. A horn solo in the coda evokes the mystery of forest deeps from an old and bardic time.
The second movement (Adagio non troppo, B major, 4-4) is of a profoundly romantic and yet somewhat elusive character. Not a scherzo, but rather the old-time minuet, is hinted at in the third movement (Allegretto grazioso—Quasi Andantino,—G major, 3-4) . The engaging melody
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is sung immediately by the oboes over chords in the clarinets and bassoons and pizzicato arpeggios in the ’cellos. ”

“ Heinrich Reimann finds in it the grandeur, the loftiness, the deep earnestness of tragic character, “Calamities, which an inexorable fate had imposed on him, leave the hero guilty; the tragic downfall atones for the guilt; this downfall, which by purifying the passions and awakening fear and pity works on the race at large, brings expiation and redemption to the hero himself.” ”

“ When the violin does come in, it is with a kind of breathless passage, on which there was some discussion between the composer and Joachim.
“We cannot fail to trace in the passages for solo the special points in which Joachim was without a rival, such as the handling of several parts and other things. The absence of the slightest trace of passages written for mere effect is as characteristic of the player as of the composer; and, like the other concertos, the work for violin is to be judged first and foremost as a composition, not as a means of display. ”

“ Brahms had a low opinion of him. He had even written while Dessoff was still in Vienna:
“Now Dessoff is absolutely not the right man for this, the only enviable post in Vienna. There are special reasons why he continues to beat time, but not a soul approves. Under him the orchestra has positively deteriorated.” Three days after the première at Karlsruhe the symphony was repeated at Mannheim, this time with the composer as conductor.
At first the C minor Symphony won little more than a success of esteem. Even Hanslick, Brahms’s Viennese prophet, was not wholly enthusiastic. ”

“ The first melody comes back in the ’cello and dominates the coda, against trills and arpeggios in the piano.
The finale (Allegretto grazioso, B flat major, 2-4) is a rondo on a grand scale, the first of whose three themes follows:
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Symphony in F Major, No. 3, Op. 90
Brahms finished the third of his symphonies at Wiesbaden in the summer of 1883. In October he returned to Vienna with the completed score, which he immediately took to Hans Richter, by that time the conductor of nearly everything in Vienna. Richter brought it out at a Philharmonic Concert on December 2. ”

“ Brahms, in spite of his mature years and all the important work that he had put to his credit, was again 28 somewhat timid about a new symphony. In a letter to Hans von Bülow he described it, oddly enough, as “a couple of entr’actes”; he also termed it “a choral work without text.” Yet he was eager for opinions from such valued friends as Elisabeth von Herzogenberg and Clara Schumann. He felt that the symphony had failed to please a group of men, including Hanslick, Billroth, Richter, Kalbeck, to whom he had played a four-hand piano version with Ignaz Brüll. ”

“ The adjective “heroic” has often been associated with the Third Symphony of Brahms, as in its Italian form “eroica,” it is attached to the Third Symphony of Beethoven. Indeed, Richter, in a toast, christened this symphony, while it was still in manuscript, Brahms’s “Eroica.” Hanslick, though concurring with Richter, points out that the heroic quality is limited to the first and the last movements. This “heroic” element, however, “is without any warlike flavor ”

“ There has long been discussion as to what tragedy this overture sets forth. It has been called “a tragedy not of actual happenings but of soul life. No hero, no event, suggested program music or any specific musical portrayal, although Hanslick says that if it be necessary to associate the overture with a particular tragedy, that tragedy is ‘Hamlet’.” The Hamletians identify the second theme, in F, with Ophelia and the episode in B-flat with Fortinbras. ”

“ In spite of this dark prophecy, the symphony has long been one of the most popular, and it is now the established fashion to find in it not only magnitude and ruggedness, 11 but pathos, tenderness, and a profound humanity. ”

“ Subsidiary material is employed before we hear the subject that caused Joachim to think of Leander conquering the Grecian waters. Whether or not Brahms had such an idea in mind, this finale is a colossal struggle between titanic powers, culminating in a tremendous climax. Then peace and the major mode. With respect to this tranquil coda Hanslick remarks: “The raging ocean waves calm down to a mysterious whisper. In an enigmatic strangeness, in marvellous beauty, the whole thing dies away....”
Symphony in E-Minor, No. ”

“ We do not care to inquire whether the composer has a special tragedy in his mind, or if so, which one; those who remain musically unconvinced by the unsurpassably powerful theme would not be assisted by a particular suggestion.”
The overture opens (Allegro ma non troppo, D minor, 2-2) with two fortissimo chords, after which the strings give out the first theme. The quieter second theme is uttered by the violins. A more moderate section, in part new and in part derived from earlier material, suggested to Grove a funeral march.
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in B-flat Major, No.2, Op. ”

“ When the symphony was actually performed in public, at a concert of the Vienna Philharmonic, under the direction of Hans Richter, Brahms’s friends found it anything but a lugubrious and forbidding composition. The date of that first performance, by the way, is variously given as December 20, 24, and 30, 1877, and January 10, 1878, of which December 30 is favored. The success with the audience at the première was progressive. ”

“ Another biographer of Brahms, Dr. Hermann Deiters, sums up the essence as follows: “In this work we see a strong hero battling with an iron and relentless fate; passing hopes of victory cannot alter an impending 22 destiny. ”