Great symphony in the tradition of Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann. Brahms‘ Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 is performed by the Sinfonieorchester Basel under the baton of Ivor Bolton. The concert on September 10, 2020 took place to mark the occasion of the Stadtkasino Basel reopening.

(00:00) Coming on stage
(00:34) I. Un poco sostenuto – Allegro
(18:15) II. Andante sostenuto
(27:48) III. Un poco allegretto e grazioso
(32:58) IV. Adagio — Più andante — Allegro non troppo, ma con brio — Più allegro

Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897) did not complete his first symphony until he was 43, and it took him a full 14 years to do so. "I will never compose a symphony! You have no idea how it makes people like us feel to hear such a giant marching behind us all the time.” Brahms wrote this to his conductor friend Hermann Levi in 1870. At that time, however, he had already been working on his first symphony for eight years and did not complete it until 1876.

The giant refers to Beethoven, whose symphonic works cast a powerful shadow over the entire 19th century. Brahms felt inhibited by the ambition Beethoven had created through his symphonies, while Wagner, his antipode, postulated that the symphonic genre was finished and turned to music drama. Franz Liszt, in turn, programmatically refined the symphony into a symphonic poem. Thus Brahms was seen as Beethoven's true heir, and conductor Hans von Bülow influenced the reception of the first symphony by calling it "Beethoven's Tenth." Brahms once dismissed supposed or actual echoes of Beethoven with the venomous remark that "every donkey hears it the same way".

A production by SWR & EuroArts Music InternationaI in collaboration with ARTE

© 2020 SWR | EuroArts

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