My jaw dropped at 24:30. That and 4:58 must be some of the best inter-movement references ever

Wow! I know this piece of music because of the piece "Cans and Brahms" from Yes' album Fragile. I didn't know it was this piece when I clicked on the thumbnail and was pleasantly surprised. Thanks for the great video as always.

HES BACK AT IT AGAIN

Fantastic video. With every new upload, you continue to solidify yourself as one of the greatest music content creators on KZfaq

I remember listening to prog rock back in the day, it’s very influenced by classical music. This scherzo is the basis for “Cans and Brahms” by Yes, but my favorite example would be “Hamburguer Concerto” by Focus, which resembles a free adaptation of “Variations on a theme by Haydn”.

I'm really excited about movement 4!!!

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Yeah, this means that we are now within sight of something I have been looking forward to for quite some time; your analysis of the imposing passacaglia finale of the fourth. That movement has intrigued me ever since I first heard it almost 30 years ago and has provided a never ending well of study

After hearing this movement so many times over so many years, I’m amazed it never occurred to me that it contained references to themes from the first and fourth movements. Brilliant analysis!

My God-I am going to have to order these Rattle recordings. I have been listening to Brahms for almost 25 years now and no recording has had me on the edge of my seat like this one has.

3:00 is gold

Lets gooooooo so excited!

I've always heard the poco meno presto "trio" section as having quotes from ALL THREE previous symphonies: the opening chords embodying the motto theme from 3rd symphony 1st mvt., the 2nd symphony finale as you highlighted, and more subtly the 1st symphony finale starting in bar 189. After this, the sudden onset of the recapitulation is also the return to the current work!

Have listened to this movement for decades (I’m a hornist) - weirdly, I have always heard the new theme in G Major. It is clearly a different key and though there is ambiguity, playing this piece on natural horn one cannot escape the transition

Best explanation of that perfectly composed music made me forget that I was hungry. Thank you very, very much for such way better delight!

Great video! can’t wait for the fourth movement!

Thanks so much for another amazing analysis. This has always been one of my favorite Brahms movements - and it most certainly is a scherzo. You've shown me details that have been right before my eyes for years, but which I had somehow missed. Can't wait for the next episode.

Another great video! Brahms never ceases to amaze me with the level of detail involved in his craft...the same could be said for you with these videos; the amount of time it must take you to thoroughly analyze each movement, color code it, then sync it all up together with the music in real time, then provide commentary...I just want you to know it's appreciated

Congratulations! very interesting analysis of this piece, that, at a first look, seems a simple exposition of brilliant notes. On the contrary, you show us the intelligent and subtle construction of Brahms composition, as usual in his music. Bravo! 👍💪

Fantastic knowledge and exposition, as always! Thanks for the video!

Richard these videos are absolutely fantastic. You are the best there is at this on KZfaq. Funny that I hear the section in the key of G and not C in my mind, but I guess it may just be subjective??

Once again a great analysis! Thank you very much! By the way, the green theme (grazioso) always reminds me a little of the Second Theme (B flat major) from the final movement of Schumann's 3rd Symphony.

Great Symphony, great movement and great analysis!

Wow! Stunning analysis. Well done. Loved the symphony for years - loving it with fresh ears again after your analysis. Can’t wait for fourth movement.

Looking forward to the Mov.4!🥰

Beautiful analysis, thank you.

My favorite youtuber! Thanks for the video always learning a lot 🥁🎵

Well, I think one of the reasons he didn't return to the introductory part in the exposition section in the recapitulation section (even though it would havde worked fine musically!) is that he wanted to save it to the coda where he plays with it all kionds of ways.

So well done, thank you! This symphony is my absolute favorite symphony of all. Having said that, I always expected, in the trio (or "trio"), an actual new theme, but one gets only an obvious variation of the main theme ... which I found less satisfying. I wonder whether there are others who have the same feeling.

Can you do an analysis on Strauss "Metamorphosen"? Great channel btw!

Great work buddy

🎉for the video-the allegro giocoso reminds me the allegro appassionato of the second piano concerto with its Scherzo and the trio in Dmaj-here in D flat maj-the poco meno presto is both the trio of the scherzo and the end of the development of the sonata form!😮

This symphony is notable for its energetic third movement followed by a somber final movement. I can think of two analogs: Tchaikovsky 6th symphony and Mahler 9th.

Richard I love your channel so much! I live and breathe classical music and your analyses make me appreciate it even more. I must ask, will there be more Bruckner on the way? Whatever you come out with you can be assured I’ll be watching, Dan from Newcastle England.

Wonderful.

Prog rock band yes used this movement in one of their songs

In the countless times I've listened to this I never appreciated how harmonically unsettling those F naturals in the second theme are. I also don't think there's any clear root position G major throughout that second theme. It definitely keeps your ear wanting to get back to C.

While Brahms' third symphony is my favourite, this has to be my favourite single Brahms symphonic movement.

The second theme group in the exposition, the one you said sounds like it’s somewhere between C and G major, reminds me of the last movement of Beethoven’s 4th piano concerto in G major, in which the main theme of the rondo begins in C major and modulates to G. Perhaps that served as an inspiration for Brahms?

I had proteted myself from every possible information about the last two movements before this video came out to avoid spoilers. Now I'm doing this only for the last movement to reveal. 5:50 This can be simply explained as G mixolydian. As phrygian mode has played an important role in the second movement, it's no surprise other plagal modes appear in the following movements. 16:07 I think it's open to ambiguity. In one of my own works, I even marked the not-so-slow second movement as "Scherzo" because of the emotion, which is followed by an actual "Tempo di Minuetto" third movement more of a traditional ternary form. I independently went through this and some other creative forms, which also would have happened in someone's sonata form work if classical music were not interrupted by other modern music styles as a whole.

I can’t help but hear this movement as relating to Mendelssohn. I have no idea if Brahms meant it this way. He probably didn’t. But the pink chord at 0:58 (and subsequent iterations) reminds me of the donkey call in the Mid Summer Night Dream overture. The Orange theme at 1:02 sounds so Mendelssohnian too. Possibly from the same overture or the Italian symphony. And then there’s the little fragments in the violins at 6:21 that remind me of the violin concerto.

Brahms violin concerto movement 1 also uses alot of falling thirds, specifically during the violin opening

You are the reason I download ytb

Also the bass line before E 😮

My favorite details about this piece are the way he repeats a chord, reinterpreting its harmonic direction. For example, m. 108: IV+6 goes directly to I (!), and *then* to the expected vi. (The other 19th century work I know with IV+6 going directly to the tonic is the end of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto.) Then of course in the recap the “same” chord becomes the dominant 7th of B♭ … and he makes quite a different path to A major (instead of the same +6th relationship we might expect). On the last page he changes the repeated IV-V to *ii7-V* before finishing. This stuck out to me even as a kid, like a sort of self-commentary. He seems to be implying that ii7 is more properly cadential, or something. At 27:20 you say he “alters the remainder of the blue theme” - but I hear this more as a transformation of the socalled “trio” section, with the same harmonic progression. Also in m. 48 the chain of descending 3rds seems to refer to the first mvt. theme, yes?

Great analysis...is there a video for his second piano concerto?

I don't know why but the combination of both orange and blue themes gives some Spanish music vibes, just like the 2nd movement. Also that C-G ambiguity could just be C lydian.

"Theme" and "subject" are often confused when analysing sonata form. The exposition of this movement is the perfect example of the distinction: a "subject" is a key-orientated grouping of themes, not necessarily a single theme. This distinction also makes it much easier to describe monothematic sonata form, where the second subject differs from the first in terms of key but not its themes.

It's neither called a Scherzo by Brahms nor does it suggest the form. It does however, continue Brahms' obvious preoccupation with the idea of continuous variation which permeates the entire symphony.

the brahms x triangle thing was so funny

Great video! Best waltz/dance sections in major symphonic works? I’ve always loved when I hear a light waltz theme in the middle of a massive orchestral work, it’s like a breath of fresh air!

Is b.177 in 15:09 another cross reference of the opening motive of the Third Symphony? Also b.258 in 21:43 is quite similar to the second subject of the First Symphony. Thanks for your video as always!

3:02 - Yeah, please, don't go there 🥲

Hello Richard. Thank You very much for your excellent videos. Could You say to me with program do You use for all the color on the score and the montage of the video ? I try to make the same type of work in my school of music. Thank You !

Love your videos Richard! I wanted to ask you, what software do you use for your music sheet editing?

Brahms was pure genius!!

I definitely hear the beginning of the exposition section in G major with some G mixolydian, not C lydian.

For me this 3rd movement sounds like and Hungarian Dance with a symphonic development, in sonata form, rather than a true scherzo. The others third movements from the symphonies are close to intermezzi. In the Third Symphony, that third movement took the position of a slow movement because of the richness of the melody and because usually is played slow. Brahms called for a "Poco Allegretto" and usually is played "Adagio".

Is this the only scherzo in Brahms’ symphonies? I would say yes. 1st symphony and 3rd symphony third movements - definitely not scherzos. The form of 2nd symphony third movement is reminiscent of Beethoven (4th and 7th), but in that case, you might say it is a trio-scherzo-trio-scherzo-trio.

It's a brilliant piece but I have to admit that I don't really like it in context. It seems quite out of place in an otherwise dark and sombre symphony. I sometimes thought it served as an ironic ersatz finale to make a contrast with the real dark final. I'd also call in a scherzo; there had been sonata form scherzi before (an earlyish famous one in Beethoven's sonata op.31/3) and while I also think that the passage beginning with the horn solo reminds one of a trio, structurally it clearly isn't a trio (but maybe another deception, the listener might be led to think that now there's going to be a trio section?). It also reminds me both of the tranquillo/sostenuto passage in the development of the finale of the 2nd symphony and the horn passage in its 1st movement (that in turn migh be a nod towards a similar passage in Schumann's "Spring" symphony). The 3rd movements of Brahms' 1st and 3rd are more like "intermezzi" to me, the one in the 2nd seems like a mix between a nostalgic menuet and light scherzando. My favorite "symphonic scherzo" by Brahms is actually the one in the 2nd piano concerto that conforms more to "traditional scherzo" than the one in the 4th.

Can you do Tchaikovsky 4 next?

GIGACHAD!!!

One might also call it his only symphonic Scherzo. The other 3rd movements are Intermezzi.

Finally

3:00 lol

As to the question of whether this is "really" a scherzo, this movement has always been the oddball of the symphony to me. It's supposed to function as a scherzo of course, but I always thought it sounded so much like a finale, it's too bombastic and grandiose for a scherzo. The first time around, I was frankly surprised there was another movement after this (others I've shown it to have said the same thing as well.) To me, this movement acts as a false "triumphant finale," which makes the actual finale all the more tragic when it comes. This tragic twist of fate is foreshadowed, of course, by this movement being in the "wrong" key, but otherwise if you put this same movement transposed to E major and cut the passacaglia, nobody would have questioned it. Of course, we'd me missing out on the best part.

I don’t know why anyone bothered writing symphonies after Brahms.

Thank you very much for the video! For me this Scherzo is as demonic and angry as the Scherzo of Tschaikowsky 6th.

Hi Richard. Thank you a lot for all your videos! I'm waiting (just kidding), for some years now, that you make a video about a "strange" chord Mozart uses sometimes. Once, I almost asked about it to a conductor at a Noce rehearsal - but I wasn't capable of choosing the right moment to do it… So, with humility, I would like to ask you, what is that chord, if it is the same chord at each time. It appears at the second act's finale of the Noce (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Z5h5fbmLks6tnJ8.html, over the forte) , at the concerto for two pianos (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/oauRlsVensrHZ2w.html) and some other works (can't remember now). To me, it's a kind of 9th stable chord, but I'm not that good with "solfeggio"… I hope you can answer me ☺ Thank you again for all your work!

rite of spring deep dive?