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Johannes Brahms' Symphony No. 1 in C minor op. 68 was performed by the WDR Symphony Orchestra under the direction of its then chief conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste on September 17, 2015 at the Beethovenfest in Bonn.
Historic recording from the WDR Classic Archive.
Johannes Brahms - Symphony No. 1 in C minor op. 68
00:00:13 I. Un poco sostenuto - Allegro
00:13:21 II. Andante sostenuto
00:22:02 III. un poco allegretto e grazioso
00:24:40 IV. Adagio - Allegro non troppo, ma con brio
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○ Introduction to the work:
When it came to symphonies, Johannes Brahms was a late bloomer: he took his time with his symphonic debut until the age of 43. For him, composing a symphony was a "matter of life and death". Beethoven's nine symphonies had helped the genre achieve such a high status and standard that it was regarded as the highest goal of composing in the 19th century. This overpowering shadow of Beethoven weighed heavily on all subsequent composers. To make matters worse for Brahms, Robert Schumann had announced the 20-year-old composer as the new musical "Messiah" in 1853. This advance praise simultaneously inspired and paralyzed Brahms. All subsequent attempts to tackle the symphonic genre were accompanied by self-doubt. He gradually approached the prestigious symphony by writing serenades, chamber music and music for choir and orchestra. Finally, after more than 20 years of preparation, his Symphony No. 1 was premiered in Karlsruhe on November 4, 1876.
Following on from the classical tradition, Brahms devised his own creative means. These included, above all, the principle of developing variation, i.e. the derivation of all important motifs and themes from a core idea. While Beethoven had already laid the foundation for this, Brahms goes much further and covers all movement sections with a dense fabric of motivic-thematic relationships. The 1st Symphony begins with an extended introduction in which the thematic material of the following movements can be heard, including the chromatically soaring melody in the violins, which seems like a desperate rebellion against an overpowering fate. Brahms unfolds an unheard-of tension here by having the strings fight against the persistently hammering timpani (organ point on c). After two less dramatic middle movements, Brahms introduces an alphorn melody and a march theme in the symphony's finale, which has been said to be similar to Beethoven's "Joy" hymn from the 9th Symphony. According to Brahms, no wonder, as "every donkey hears it the same way!". So a deliberate homage to Beethoven? For the renowned conductor Hans von Bülow, at any rate, this symphony by Brahms was "Beethoven's Tenth".
(Text: Tilla Clüsserath)