Brahms

PERFORMERS:
Soloist: Leonidas Kavakos (violin)
The Mariinsky Orchestra
Conductor: Valery Gergiev

PROGRAMME:
Johannes Brahms
Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77
Symphony No 4 in E Minor, Op. 98

Johannes Brahms’ Fourth Symphony (1884–1885) was the first symphony ever to open with a “fragmented” theme comprising separate motifs. It subsequently formed the basis for the song O Tod, wie bitter bist du. The trumpets give out signals as if a reminder of the Day of Judgement, while the wind instruments playing on the octave refer to fleeting episodes from Mozart in which “the vision is funereal, a sudden gloom...”
In the captivating second movement, Brahms appears in the guise of the heir to another Viennese composer – Schubert. The scherzo is wonderfully irrepressible in its mirth, and Brahms even introduces the piccolo flute in his orchestra – for the first and only time.
The finale, with its remark of energico e passionate – going against tradition – was composed in the form of variations. Eight measured chords of the theme alternate with each other inescapably, like the advance of Fate. For the first time in this symphony the trombones emerge, giving the music a funereal character. Examples for Brahms came from the idols of his youth – Beethoven (in particular his Thirty-Two Variations) and Bach: the solo flute at the core of the movement could have been written entirely by Bach.
Anna Bulycheva

1878 went down in the history of music as the year of two great violin concerti – those of Brahms and Tchaikovsky. Johannes Brahms composed his Violin Concerto for his old friend Joseph Joachim and with his active involvement. The manuscript bears witness to the fact that Joachim not only reworked certain strokes of the violin but also essentially rewrote all the quick and virtuoso passages, especially in the finale. The violin concerto is frequently compared with the Second Symphony. What they share is their abundance of bright colours, celebratory finales and illusory simplicity. In the concerto, Brahms slightly lightens the orchestral fabric in order that greater attention may be devoted to the melodic ornamentation of the soloist, though in the first section there is intense development, a heroic return of the main theme in the reprise and a slow and ecstatic coda.
Anna Bulycheva