Continue the journey…
We suggest five works to explore after Brahms’s Third Symphony…
Alittle over a year after writing his Third Symphony, Brahms completed his Fourth, bringing his cycle to a glorious conclusion. Described by the critic Eduard Hanslick as ‘like a dark well; the longer we look into it, the more brightly the stars shine back’, the Fourth’s moments of stellar brilliance include the final movement’s superbly crafted passacaglia (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/riccardo Chailly Decca 436 4662).
Comparison is often made between the buoyant opening of Brahms’s Third and that of the ‘Rhenish’ Symphony
No. 3 by his older friend Robert Schumann. That Brahms was staying near the River Rhine as he wrote his Third may possibly have brought back happy memories that, before we are taken into more reflective territory in the later movements, infuses the symphony with an initial sense of good humour and well being. (Swedish Chamber Orchestra/thomas Dausgaard BIS BISSACD1619).
‘What magnificent melodies there are for the finding!’ wrote an enormously impressed Dvoˇrák when Brahms played him the first and last movements of his Third in October 1883. The Czech composer was inspired to embark on his own Seventh Symphony the following year, completing this work of capricious mood swings, rich orchestral colour and moments of folk-like charm in early 1885. (Baltimore Symphony Orchestra/marin Alsop Naxos 8.572112).
Try also Jan Kalivoda, a Czech composer from the generation before Brahms and Dvoˇrák who was admired by Schumann. His Fifth Symphony of 1840 is a work of catchy lyricism, joyful self-confidence and the occasional dark corner that give an inkling of what was to come from those two greats later in the century. (Das Neue Orchester/ Christoph Spering CPO 777 1392).
And for a German near-contemporary of Brahms’s Third, there’s the Fifth Symphony by Joachim Raff, premiered in Berlin in October 1873. Subtitled ‘Lenore’, the work was inspired by a poem by Gottfried August Bürger about a soldier who leaves his beloved for war, only to return to her after his death. Both dramatic and richly melodic, the symphony culminates in a sumptuous yet ultimately restrained chorale. (Orchestre de la Suisse Romande/ Neeme Järvi Chandos CHSA5135).
Kalivoda’s Fifth combines catchy lyricism with the occasional dark corner