Now for part two of today’s symphony double-header.
Again, I find myself listening to conductor Jaap van Zweden and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. This time, it’s Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 to which I’m listening.
I can tell you right off the bat that the first movement is ridiculously good. It’s beautiful, melodic, and compelling.
Symphony No. 4 in E minor was composed in 1884. Brahms was 51 years old. His symphony premiered the next year, 1885.
In the section Reception in its Wikipedia entry, I learned,
The work was given its premiere in Meiningen on October 25, 1885, with Brahms himself conducting. The piece had earlier been given to a small private audience in a version for two pianos, played by Brahms and Ignaz Brüll. Brahms’ friend and biographer Max Kalbeck, reported that the critic Eduard Hanslick, acting as one of the page-turners, exclaimed on hearing the first movement at this performance: “For this whole movement I had the feeling that I was being given a beating by two incredibly intelligent people.” Hanslick, however, wrote also that “[for] the musician, there is not another modern piece so productive as a subject for study. It is like a dark well; the longer we look into it, the more brightly the stars shine back.”
The musicologist Donald Francis Tovey praises the work as “one of the greatest orchestral works since Beethoven,” and singles out the end of the first movement, which “bears comparison with the greatest climaxes in classical music, not excluding Beethoven.”
The symphony is rich in allusions, most notably to various Beethoven compositions. The symphony may well have been inspired by the play Antony and Cleopatra, which Brahms had been researching at the time.
Progressive rock group Yes’s keyboardist Rick Wakeman abridged and arranged the third movement for various keyboards in the instrumental “Cans and Brahms” from the 1971 album Fragile.
I’m a huge fan of Yes, especially their album Fragile. And yet I don’t remember…oh, wait! I do remember! Here it is:
Very cool. Now I know what I’ve been listening to all these years. Wakeman was quoting Brahms!
Once again, this is why I conduct these musical explorations. I learn a great deal – and have a fine time doing it.
The running times for the second of the two symphonies (Symphony No. 4 in E minor), from this particular conductor (Jaap) and this particular orchestra (Netherlands Philharmonic) are as follows:
- Allegro non troppo………………………………12:36
- Andante moderato………………………………10:42
- Allegro giocoso………………………………………6:05
- Allegro energico e passionato………………9:27
Total time: 38:09
I went to YouTube again to see if I could find a suitable performance to share here. I did. The great Leonard Bernstein, who not only performs Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 in E minor, he explains it in his own inimitable fashion.
Enjoy!
Now, for the subjective part:
My Rating:
Recording quality: 4 (seems a little flat)
Overall musicianship: 4 (extremely well done)
CD liner notes: 3 (11-page essay about the life of Brahms, little else)
How does this make me feel: 4 (takes awhile to get into it)
This recording doesn’t seem to have the dynamic range of the previous symphonies. It seems flattened somehow. Like the top end is missing.
The first movement of Symphony No. 4 is exceptionally good. The repeating melody is gorgeous.
The third movement is incredibly lively, more energetic than I’ve heard in Brahms so far. I like that. It woke me up.
Movement IV is dramatic. Lots of brass.
Overall, Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 in E minor is a lush, challenging work that requires repeated listens to fully appreciate. Thankfully, because we’re all on lockdown thanks to COVID-19, I had time to give it repeated listens.
I like this. A lot. Not as well as Beethoven or Bruckner. But I can tell it’s a masterwork from a master at work.
Thumbs up!