So as it really hasn't been that long since the last symphony post (Dvorak No.9 on August 9, 2008), historically speaking we would need to go back sixteen years from 1893 to 1877 to get to the symphony in this post. To think that so much happens in those sixteen years is almost too much to take, including the move into post-Romanticism and the rise of Russian music.

Anyway, enjoy this weekend's symphony.

With the views that Johannes Brahms was one of the great symphonists, it could come as a surprise that the composer himself was weary of the genre early in his life. Brahms first drew up sketches for a symphony in 1856 (he was 23) but not a soul was to hear his first completed work until twenty years had passed in 1876. Luckily for the musical world, the first symphony broke Brahms free of his qualms and the world had only to wait a year before the second one followed.

Brahms great symphonic writing was seen throughout his early works. When Brahms was twenty, he performed a selection of his piano pieces for his friend and fellow composer, Robert Schumann. The pieces impressed Schumann enough to say that he heard “disguised symphonies,” and could only predict about the splendors and possibilities that Brahms could achieve when he took his writing into an even more diverse setting such as a full orchestra.

The Second Symphony in D Major, Op.73 was written in the summer of 1877 in the town of Pörtschach on the Wörthersee in the Austrian Alps. The casual, sunny retreat in the mountains appeared perfect for Brahms to play a joke on his publisher by describing the new work he was composing as, gloomy and filled with melancholy. “I have never written anything so sad and mournful. The score will have to be published with a black border.” As would later be discovered, the second symphony is anything but gloomy, save for the four-note introduction to the first movement that could be viewed as dark, and was considered “a great, unqualified success” by Viennese music critic Eduard Hanslick. Hanslick later extended his comments to describe the symphony as a work that “extends its warmth and sunshine to connoisseurs and laymen alike.”

1. Allegro non troppo (part one)


One could not blame Brahms for waiting so long into his life before writing a symphony, as the world was still perhaps confined within the legacy of Beethoven and his nine great symphonies. It even continued with the second being referenced to the similar pastoral likeliness of Beethoven’s Symphony No.6 in F Major, which parallels Brahms in many ways. Brahms first, and Beethoven’s fifth symphonies were written in the key of c minor and were a prelude to the later vibrant and joyous works of Brahms’ second and Beethoven’s sixth. Both works followed their predecessors more quickly.

1. Allegro non troppo (part two)


The opening movement is where the symphony could be considered the most nonchalant. The movement contains three vivid melodies, first opening with four notes in the bass, the second one moves into the full orchestra that is much more vibrant and later ensues with the nostalgic third melody sung by the violas and cellos. The three melodies then provide the material for the development in a section that shows Brahms true meticulous nature with developing as many as five melodies and keeping them all on the go. The orchestration is rich and warm throughout and the climax falls before the coda where the movement ends softly and tranquil.

The Adagio non troppo of the second movement starts in many ways similar to the first. A deep, possibly dark melody opens on the violas and cellos, which carry through to a climax before a humbled woodwind section carries out over plucked strings. The strings introduce a feeling of urgency into the movement at this point but the mood sharpens later and the opening melodies are brought back once again before the movement ends with grandeur from the brass, silencing one of the greatest movements in romantic music.

2. Adagio non troppo


The third movement is the symphony at its most pastoral mood. The movement begins and ends peaceful, with a brief interlude of a presto section that hurries the symphony into possible turmoil, but Brahms returns the movement to its peaceful beginnings, before the interlude section can get its hold on the audience.

The fourth movement is a celebrated source of riveting energy. The movement starts soft but sounds vibrant the moment the strings annunciate a soft but busy sounding melody. Soon the orchestra is in full tilt continuing the opening melody in jubilation until a quiet section that prepares second main theme collides with the momentum. After a development section that seems rushed and urgent builds energy, the movement breaks into a calm before out of the dust rises quietly the first theme akin to the opening before the second theme takes over again and drives the movement towards its brilliant coda and one of the greatest affirmative endings in all music.

4. Allegro con spirito


The second symphony is a joyous occasion of music. It premiered in Vienna on December 30, 1877 with Hans Richter conducting. With a celebrated conductor such as Richter on the podium, it showed how high of stature Brahms had become with the Viennese public and how eagerly anticipated his music had become. One could argue that the next generation of Beethoven had arrived in Vienna.

The videos are from a 1973 recording of Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Sadly there is no complete recording available online in any form. This Karajan rendition lacks the third movement, whereas another great recording available online, Carlos Kleiber and the Vienna Philharmonic provide just the outer movements. The complete recording that I have on my computer is of Sir Thomas Beecham conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and save for the coughing as it is a live performance and the audience cutting off the ending of the fourth movement in applause (though how could you not?), is another great recording.