LIVE AT THE CONCERTGEBOUW – week 13 “… Mariss Jansons, the RCO’s chief conductor is conducting Johannes Brahms’ swansong symphony no. 4 in e minor opus 98. The first performance by the Concertgebouw Orchestra was given in 1888, just three years after Brahms completed the work. It has become one the orchestra’s most beloved symphonies. And we, listeners, be it at the Concertgebouw or listening to the radio, we couldn’t agree more.

Just to comment on a few details: Beethoven is omnipresent in all of Brahms’ music and loud and clear in the first movement of this symphony: from a small nucleus Brahms constructs a massive movement. That was what Beethoven had taught him. And Franz Schubert is singing along with Brahms in the second movement and Bach is the source of inspiration for the finale. The set of variations is built on a theme that Brahms found in Bach’s cantata no. 150 Nach dir Herr verlanget mich...’’ [RNW-host Hans Haffmans]

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra - Mariss Jansons, conductor - Ellen Corver, piano
 
Bedrich Smetana: Overture ‘The Bartered Bride’
Bohuslav Martinu: Double Concerto, for two string orchestras, piano and timpani
Johannes Brahms: Symphony no. 4 in E minor op. 98
 

WE APOLOGIZE, BUT THIS PROGRAMME IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE FOR STREAMING