Johannes Brahms' Symphony No. 3 in F major op. 90, performed by the WDR Sinfonieorchester under the baton of its principal conductor Cristian Măcelaru on February 19, 2022 at the Kölner Philharmonie.
Johannes Brahms - Symphony No. 3 in F major op. 90
00:00:00 I. Allegro con brio
00:12:13 II. Andante
00:20:12 III. poco allgeretto
00:26:15 IV. Allegro
WDR Symphony Orchestra
Cristian Măcelaru, conductor
In his series "Kurz und Klassik", chief conductor Cristian Măcelaru talks about Brahms' third symphony: • Johannes Brahms: Sinfo...
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○ Introduction to the work
Johannes Brahms needed a free back for the ambitious project of composing a symphony. He did not put any of his four symphonies to paper at home in Vienna, where the small and large disturbances of everyday life did not even allow the necessary concentration to arise. For large-scale works, he therefore retreated to nature in the summer: to Rügen for the first symphony, to Lake Wörthersee for the second, and to Mürzzuschlag in Styria for the fourth. And the third? In 1883, for once, he took an upper-middle-class urban approach - in a feudal Wiesbaden villa, as he wrote to a friend: "I live here charmingly ... Originally built as a studio, it has subsequently become the prettiest country house." Here he broods over the notes during the day, but not a hint of information about it leaks out. Brahms enjoys evening parties, converses animatedly with the guests. But he is silent about his daily activities. Even in his letters, which he sends from Wiesbaden, he does not mention the Third with a syllable. And when it is finished, he seems to want to eliminate all traces of its creation - he leaves not a single sketch to posterity, only the finished score. Publishers then vie for it. In the end, as was usually the case, Fritz Simrock won the bid. Until that happens, Brahms plays poker for his market value. The Viennese concert agent Albert J. Gutmann played into his hands, announcing in an open letter that he wanted to pay ten thousand guilders for the symphony - a third more than Simrock. Meanwhile, Simrock was sitting in Berlin and fuming. Finally, however, Brahms gives in, knowing too well what he has in his regular publisher.
The music seems to reveal why the composer was so tight-lipped during the development process: For the first time in a symphony, Brahms tries out a cyclical principle in the Third. The powerful Dionysian main theme from the beginning, for example, is tamed, downright purified, and is heard once again at the very end, as a cascade of Apollonian heights.
Text: Otto Hagedorn