Andris Nelsons conducts an All-Brahms Program
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Symphony Hall, Boston, MA
Andris Nelsons leads an all-Brahms program pairing early and mid-career orchestral works. Concerned with living up to Beethoven’s precedent in the genre, Brahms labored on his First Symphony for twenty years before finally allowing it to see the light of day in 1876. With references to Beethoven, Brahms clearly places himself in the great German symphonic tradition. The warm and idyllic Serenade No. 2, written in 1859, is a five-movement work that omits violins, creating strong contrasts between strings and woodwinds. This lovely piece was dedicated to Brahms’s lifelong friend Clara Schumann.
Featuring
Program Notes & Works
Serenade No. 2 in A, Op. 16
Continuing the tradition of the light and entertaining Mozart-era serenade, Brahms's 5-movement Serenade No. 2 in A omits violins from the orchestra altogether, giving it a particularly warm, dusky—we might even say Brahmsian—tone.
Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Opus 68
Though Johannes Brahms already had several works for orchestra behind him when he completed his Symphony No. 1 at age 43, he knew that the genre required a newfound comfort level in writing for the orchestra, and, still more significantly, a reckoning with his anxiety of following in Beethoven’s foo...
