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Symphony No. 4 - Brahms
YouTube ^ | October 25, 1885 | Johannes Brahms

Posted on 01/17/2016 11:03:31 PM PST by WhiskeyX

Sir Georg Solti Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 by Johannes Brahms is the last of his symphonies. Brahms began working on the piece in Mürzzuschlag, then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1884, just a year after completing his Symphony No. 3, and completed it in 1885.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 later spoke more approvingly of it, however.

0:00 I.Allegro non troppo (E minor)

12:44 II.Andante moderato (E major)

25:40 III.Allegro giocoso (C major)

31:58 IV.Allegro energico e passionato (E minor)

(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...


TOPICS: Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: classical; music
Johannes Brahms

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Johannes Brahms (German: [joˈhanəs ˈbʁaːms]; 7 May 1833 - 3 April 1897) was a German composer and pianist. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. In his lifetime, Brahms's popularity and influence were considerable. He is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs", a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.

Brahms composed for piano, chamber ensembles, symphony orchestra, and for voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire. Brahms, an uncompromising perfectionist, destroyed some of his works and left others unpublished.[1]

Brahms is often considered both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is firmly rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Baroque and Classical masters. He was a master of counterpoint, the complex and highly disciplined art for which Johann Sebastian Bach is famous, and of development, a compositional ethos pioneered by Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and other composers. Brahms aimed to honour the "purity" of these venerable "German" structures and advance them into a Romantic idiom, in the process creating bold new approaches to harmony and melody. While many contemporaries found his music too academic, his contribution and craftsmanship have been admired by subsequent figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg and Edward Elgar. The diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahms's works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers. Within his meticulous structures is embedded, however, a highly romantic nature.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Brahms

1 posted on 01/17/2016 11:03:31 PM PST by WhiskeyX
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To: Roses0508; Paisan; Conan the Librarian; Chainmail; AndyJackson; JDoutrider; Politicalkiddo; ...

Ping


2 posted on 01/17/2016 11:04:41 PM PST by WhiskeyX
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To: WhiskeyX
Not quite at the same level, but . . .

Yes — Cans And Brahms (“extracts” from 3rd movement)
3 posted on 01/17/2016 11:05:58 PM PST by Olog-hai
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To: WhiskeyX

Ah... Solti...


4 posted on 01/18/2016 12:23:02 AM PST by Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)
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To: WhiskeyX

A great piece. My sister is working on a one piano reduction of that magnificent work.


5 posted on 01/18/2016 2:28:32 AM PST by Stepan12 (Our present appeasementof Islam is the Stockholm Syndrome on steroids.)
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To: WhiskeyX

Anyone think movement 4 lacks the cohesiveness of the first 3 movements?


6 posted on 01/18/2016 3:12:35 AM PST by BigEdLB (Take it Easy, Chuck. I'm Not Taking it Back -- Donald Trump)
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To: BigEdLB

Yes. I’ve never cared for the last movement.


7 posted on 01/18/2016 5:05:21 AM PST by Blennos
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To: WhiskeyX

Brahms should have quit after #1, a masterpiece. #2? Meh. I’ll try #4 for the heck of it, but not optimistic


8 posted on 01/18/2016 5:58:58 AM PST by montag813
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