Brahms taking 14 years to finish his first symphony gives me renewed hope that I might one day finish my own.

Please continue doing this “why listen to” series, really hypes me seeing my personal favorite composers here, and other great musicians as well 💁🏽‍♂️

I found Brahms hard to get into, but once I got into a single symphony a whole world just opened for me and honestly, if anyone would ask me, he might even be my favourite composer.

I’ve spent the past year of my life (in my undergrad) studying Brahms. Specifically his 4 symphonies. I’ve conducted all but the 2nd, and I have fallen in love with his writing. In my graduate degree, I will study orchestral conducting and I will spend the rest of my life studying this beautiful music. Thank you, EJPF

Born into a blue-collar family, I was forced to learn the accordion while others played the guitar. I only learned popular songs so my knowledge of orchestral music was practically nil. I took a music theory class in high school in. 1972, but we never really discussed classical music and hardly listened to it. I saw a photo of a young Brahms in my textbook. He had long hair so I thought he might be cool (lol). I went to the record store where I bought lots of rock albums and found Brahm's Symphony #1 in C minor. I didn't really get it, but kept listening. I now agree with assessment of Von Bulow; it's easily on par with Beethoven best work and could have been his "10th." There is so much there! Thanks for this, I enjoyed it!

It was Brahms who actually closed the door behind and ended Beethoven's era, opening the road for the rest of composers to become who they were in their music. For example, Mahler.

Everytime i hear Brahms 1st Symphony immediately i wanted to cry, it‘s such a beautiful and majestic piece😭❤️

As an opera singer who has been in the business for almost thirty years, it is no coincidence that my favourite composer wrote no opera.

“nobody died” Hans Rott begs to differ.

Wagner: "Beethoven ninth is the end of the symphony" Mahler : "Hold my beer"

Brahms is one of my favorite composers, especially his fantastic body of chamber works.

Schoenberg himself orchestrated a Brahms pianoquartet. His admiration went that far. Speaking for myself, Brahms' music was something I needed repeated exposure to before I understood what was going on. So many orchestral masterpieces - and dont forget the chambermusic ! Great video.

I have been an opera singer for 26 year and it is no coincidence that Brahms is my favourite composer, never having written an opera. I enjoyed the video and send thanks from Weimar.

I am in awe of Brahms' Requiem. I sang it with my fellow choristers three years ago, and it still resonates after the pandemic. It is a towering work.

At age 17, he wrote his first piano sonata. And it’s a masterpiece.

Brahms is such a giant! His music requires you to really listen in to those subtlety’s of phrase and harmony, that’s where his treasures are.

your “why listen to-“ series are more engaging and informative than my lectures at music university were, please keep doing them!

This channel is just brilliant! Its so good to see someone making an effort to make classical music more understandable and accessible! Gonna have a listen to Brahms' first with all this in mind! Thanks a bunch 😊

This is my favorite composer so it was great to see this video. Thank you Brahms' larger works are great, but where I think he really shines is in his solo and chamber works. The Clarinet Sonatas are masterpieces, as are the Clarinet Trio and Clarinet Quintet. Both cello sonatas, his violin sonatas, all of his late piano solo music--there's just nothing but great pieces in this output. Also, if anyone wants to get this type of content on Brahms in greater depth, Jan Swafford wrote a great biography.

Check out Brahms' violin concerto if you haven't... it's absolutely beautiful from start to finish.

Dude his violin concerto is absolute fire too! Basically all I've listened from him so far Ive loved

Brahms created so many masterpieces for an incredible variety of performers and forms. Very possibly the greatest composer of the all.

if Brahms wanted to write great melodies he could, I think his most famous and accessible works attest to that. but that's not what he was interested in. a lot of what Brahms was interested in followed in the footsteps of late Schumann, who was experimenting with thematic fragmentation and recombination within the framework of larger forms. the interest in his music mainly lies in the formal and harmonic tension and buildup he generates, rather than any "great theme" he wanted to impress upon his listeners. a performer who tries to mine Brahms for a catchy/attractive melody will miss the mark in his playing as much as a listener who tries to listen to Brahms for the same. Thematic fragmentation being akin to elements. And a composer is a chemist who creates "reactions" by combining things together

Wow, that was intense. The jedi knights of music.

Brahms' 1st symphony is the first work by him I ever listened, and I was most thrilled when I first recognized the motivic relation between the opening of the 4th movement and its "triumphal" development. Since then, I fell in love with Brahms' music. This video opens a door to a huge world of exploring and analyzing Brahms from this "interwoven motives" point of view, so thanks a lot!

You can't forget his trios, quartets, sonotas, and concertos. The quintet in f is one of my favourites.

Well, it´s always hard to reduce very complicated structures to a common denominator. I once analyzed a Brahms string quartet for a fellow student and I couldn´t believe how many contrapuntal relations there were. I talked with a professor of mine about this and he added: yes, and now keep in mind that this isn´t only very complex, it also sounds just great!

Great!!! Took me a while to warm up to Brahms, I didn’t get it at first. Now I can’t get enough. No matter how many times I hear the 1st movement of the 2nd symphony, it never gets old.

Words are not adequate to express my appreciation and thanks for the commendable job that this channel is doing for making us understand the vast expanse of the beautiful universe of western classical music. Great job. Carry on. Want more on Brahms , Chopin and also on all the all-time great composers.

I'm stunned by the number of works in Brahms' catalogue. I particularly love his choral music; it's wonderful to sing.

You are one of the music channels with the highest quality out there, keep up the good work👍👍👍

The work that Brahms intended to be his 1st Symphony, actually became the Piano Concerto No. 1.

This KZfaq video was superbly done, and I greatly appreciate your efforts to educate and elucidate. I have always loved Brahms.

Reminds me of German New Medicine's philosophy: Disease begins in the mind. Of the making of music there is no end, in all it's forms.

Brahms music was hard for me to wrap my head around at one point but his Cello Sonata in E minor is a masterpiece and really opened my mind and ears to his compositional style. Truly remarkable composer.

What a fan-tas-tic article! Congratulations for such an insightful essay on such an historical master of Classical Music that was Brahms!... And be sure that I'm eagerly looking forward to your others essays on your Channel "Inside the Score" 👏👏👏

Wagner: "Beethoven's ninth is the End of the symphony" Tchaikovsky: ha ha adagio lamentoso go awww

Yes, it took Brahms 20 years to finish his first symphony. What I find even more remarkable is that the following 3 symphonies are arguably even better than the first. The fourth symphony is an absolute masterpiece, equaled only by his second piano concerto...the final conclusion of a man dedicated to music entirely...

I LOVE THOSE KIND OF VIDEOS!!!! PLEASE CONTINUNE DOING THEM!!!! THANK YOUUUU

Thank you so much for this excellent and well researched series on the major composers, putting their work, lives and creative endeacours in the social, political, artistic and musical context of their times. They have given me a new understanding of many of the pieces which I thought I knew, and brought them to life in an engaging and fascinating way.

Wagner is my favorite composer. His influence is incalculable. But Brahms is an undoubted genius. His harmonic innovation and craft are works of the highest order. His third symphony simply floors me with every listen.

One can only imagine how appreciative the musical giants would be of your enthusiasm, commitment, and passion. I may not be a giant, but I am certainly thankful.

Outstanding introduction of my beloved Johannes Brahms, I highly praise your quality work, bravo and thank you. Please carry on.

This channel seems fantastic, subscribed and eager to watch more of your videos. Thank you very much!!

I adore Brahms and yet I have never heard of the Geistliches lied! Thank you for introducing me to this gorgeous piece!

I have been waiting for this a long time!

Excellent episode!! Thank you!!🌺

Thank you for doing this series!

As an Austrian who loves Brahms, I really appreciate this series! Keep it up!

Everyone here is about the music. I’m just some random dude concerned that Schumann got his mythology wrong and Minerva popped out of the head of Jupiter.

I'm going to hear 1st and 2nd live this weekend! Can't wait. I've played them both, and they're each among my favorite pieces to play (double bass). The writing lays so well in the hand.

My first day at College was having the Bass part for Brahms 4th Symphony in front of me in the student Orchestra rehearsal at 9:00 am. I had never played it or heard it before that day. I fell in love with it and immersed myself in Brahms' Orchestral music, the two Overtures and his Requiem. Wonderful stuff.

Brahms is a Composer that makes you lean far in to his musical world to understand it’s riches.

Didn't that whole trend towards more and more motivic music already begin with Beethoven? I mean his music is full of short motifs being developed and woven together to create amazingly intricate music. Funnily, both Brahms and Wagner did the same thing, so they really are in that way both descendants of Beethoven.

Can an honest man request an analysis of Brahms' Third Symphony?

Just discovering your channel, great video. Thanks very much for this.

Bruh, the universe is weird. I started understanding Brahms like a month ago and then now that I'm quite obsessed with some of his works and trying to learn an intermezzo you post this.

I always wonder in almost every video about the "battle" between the new german school and the conservatives especially in vienna people seem to ignore the symphonies of Anton Bruckner. He was a devoted Wagner fanboy, sure, but managed to create his very own language and style, adapting the new german school to a form that seemed dead to the likes of Liszt and Wagner, and even lay the groundwork for Mahler and his epicness. Could you maybe do a video or an episode of your podcast about the works of Bruckner?

I'm pretty much a pleb when it comes to classical music. I know, however, that I love it deeply for some or other reason and your commentary somehow just hits the spot! Thank you!

Never heard "Geistliches Lied" before. It really is a beautiful piece of music. Thanks

I really appreciate your effor by doing this interesting and helpful videos.

I freaking love this channel man

Violin concerto of Brahms by Hilary Hahn - golden!

His first symphony is one of my favourite pieces of classical music ever. I got to play it when I was still in school. There was a project every summer where amateur musicians could learn and practice a piece of classical music with the help and addition of professional musicians and after a week we would perform it at an open air concert in front of the opera house. The first time I participated we played Brahms' first symphony and I instantly fell in love. Such a great symphony

Ya gotta love Brahms. Each symphony written by him is terrific. His 2nd is my favorite, but they're all great.

Excellent insights and impulse for teaching.

It was his piano music that finally convinced me what a great composer he was.

The opening measures of Brahms’ 1st, like Bach’s Matthau-Passion, sends glacial shivers down the entire spine of history.

Alright, The geistliches lied is great and his symphonies are amazing too, but the best of Brahms is absolutely his chamber music (especially the quintet Op.34 and the Quartet Op.60). Not to mention his violin concerto.

Thank you for this. Very informative and interesting.

Love your videos! Would you consider doing one on Scriabin? Whilst he is well known amongst classical music fans he is not so known to the public and, in my view he was a true visionary who must be counted amongst the great founders of modernism in music along with Schoenberg, Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky. (And, just as Brahms and Wagner both lead to Schoenberg, so Scriabin led to other developments by composers who used some of the same scales he did - I.E. Stravinsky and Messiaen using octatonic scales, which Scriabin also did in his later compositions)

I find most of his music, especially his orchestral output, academic and pedantic. His chamber music, such as the clarinet quintet and the piano trios are heavenly.

It is worth noting that during this period orchestras were getting large, more orchestras were being created, musicianship was improving and…yes…bigger and better venues were being funded and constructed. Beethoven really had to hustle to get his music performed, even in Vienna and the performance quality was probably not up to par with its technical demands. The improved environment for orchestral music may have been due in part to the industrial revolution. Similar paradigm changes took place years later with the advent of recorded music and radio. It is humbling to think that these phenomenal artists probably only heard their symphonic works a mere handful of times. Those of us born into the age of recorded music are unbelievably fortunate.

"Brahms had an early fascination with techniques of ancient music." And he did audacious things with them! Composing a passacaglia for the last movement of his 4th symphony is a little like choreographing the final battle scene in "Avengers: Endgame" as a 20 minute Lindy Hop.

I've actually never been super interested in classical music. But for a few years I've noticed that when I'm really deep in despair,nothing quite helps like loosing myself listening to piano or violin symphonies... there's quite nothing like it.

Thank you.. much appreciated material

thank you very much . i think you have just saved me from boredom . yes . YOU are utterly compelling ! and you did fill gaps in my little fabric

anyone who doesn't like brahms doesn't play violin or piano the fantasies op116 is my favorite piano composition of all time the violin concerto is my favorite piece ever written for violin the violin sonatas are among the top 5 ever written without question so much more to discover his music of immense beauty and charm

Great analysing, thanks for that. :)

Great presentation Thank you

I loved this, but then I love this kind of thing! Thank you!

Because "Denn alles fleisch, es ist wie gras" exists and is written by Brahms

Really great to get some understanding into these composers when you are only a low level musician. Thanks ❤

This is excellent, thanks.

Enjoyed very much. Thanks! I'm less and less a Brahms fan as I grow older. I liked your analysis of the C minor symphony, and I recalled how much I used to admire it. The opening 30 seconds is still incomparable. Much of the rest seems too calculated to me now. My favorite works remain the Handel Variations and Fugue, the piano quintet, and D minor piano concerto, almost a symphony in itself!

Bruckner conciliating this conflict with his Symphonies.

Thank you. This is excellent.

Wagner: Beethoven's Ninth is the end of the Symphony. Shostakovich: Sharup you mouth!

Apparently Brahms fell asleep when he first heard Liszt preform his Transcendental Études and I find that hilarious 😂 he hated Liszt and Liszt hated him too haha

Brahms (1896): "I always find Beethoven's C Minor concerto (the Third Piano Concerto) much smaller and weaker than Mozart's. . . . I realize that Beethoven's new personality and his new vision, which people recognized in his works, made him the greater composer in their minds. But after fifty years, our views need more perspective. One must be able to distinguish between the charm that comes from newness and the value that is intrinsic to a work. I admit that Beethoven's concerto is more modern, but not more significant! I also realize that Beethoven's First Symphony made a strong impression on people. That's the nature of a new vision. But the last three Mozart symphonies are far more significant. . . . Yes, the Rasumovsky quartets, the later symphonies-these inhabit a significant new world, one already hinted at in his Second Symphony. But what is much weaker in Beethoven compared to Mozart, and especially compared to Sebastian Bach, is the use of dissonance. Dissonance, true dissonance as Mozart used it, is not to be found in Beethoven. Look at Idomeneo. Not only is it a marvel, but as Mozart was still quite young and brash when he wrote it, it was a completely new thing. What marvelous dissonance! What harmony! You couldn't commission great music from Beethoven since he created only lesser works on commission-his more conventional pieces, his variations and the like. When Haydn or Mozart wrote on commission, it was the same as their other works."

My mother is a voice teacher and has a large oil painting of Brahms. So there is my reason why.

11:52 - what I say when I've just finished doing my hair.

Ive played his first cello sonata before, such a great piece, i highly recommend the du pré recording

This is a great concept for a video

Schumann was actually kind of the fulcrum - both sides could accurately look to him and his music as a launch-point for their positions. His direct heir, philosophically speaking, was actually Joseph Joachim Raff (1822-1882), but few remember him anymore (although his music is starting to make something of a comeback) precisely because his attempt to straddle both philosophies led both sides to repudiate him after his death, and his music fell out of the repertoire. It is noteworthy that Raff and von Bülow were great friends, to the point that Raff dedicated his sole piano concerto to him and it was von Bülow (an acclaimed pianist and conductor as well as music journalist) who gave its first performance.

what a fun, interesting video! I will listen to Brahms now!

As an amateur violinist in a community orchestra I love playing Brahms symphonies.

Hehe, I find it somewhat comforting, at home, or flowing through a familiar celestial realm or something listening to this bit of history being narrated of a war of romantics feel as if I am watching or being immersed into the epic struggles and rivalry of Legend of the Galactic Heroes all over again.

Tchaikovsky melded right in the middle, composing operas and symphonies :)

Very good channel!