Category Archives: Jaap van Zweden

Day 309: Brahms’ Third Racket & Symphony No. 4

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BrahmsCD3Brahms’ Symphony No. 3 will forever be associated (at least, in my mind) with this scene from the ’70s British TV series Fawlty Towers.

If you’re not familiar with Fawlty Towers, it’s about a snobbish, extremely rude hotel owner named Basil Fawlty (played to perfection by Monty Python alum John Cleese) who, along with his shrew wife Sybil (Prunella Scales) own and operate Fawlty Towers.

In this short-but-hilarious scene, Sybil chastises Basil for not getting to the chores she laid out for him to do (in this case, I believe it was to compose the day’s food menu). He dashes back to his typewriter to begin the task.

So, I’ve been listening to Brahms’ Third Racket this morning.

All joking aside, Brahms’ Symphony No. 3 in F Op. 90 is Continue reading →

Day 308: Symphony No. 2

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BrahmsCD2Call me crazy, but I hear strains of lullaby music in Movement I (“Allegro non troppo”) of Brahms’ Symphony No. 2.

As I’m listening, I hear that snippet of da-da-dahhh da-da-dahhh da-da-dahhh-dahhh-da-da-dahhhh. I’m thinking, “That sure does sound like that lullaby song. What is it that? Oh, wait a minute. Isn’t it Brahm’s Lullaby?”

So, it’s possible there are short melodic strains of Brahm’s Lullaby in his Symphony No. 2 since he wrote both, right?

To my ears, Brahms’ symphonies are much more subtle than Beethoven’s. They take repeated listening for me to find the melodies and depth. They seem simplistic at first blush.

Sweet, lush, but simplistic.

The musicians on Brahms CD 2 are:

Radio Filharmonisch Orkest Holland
Jaap van Zweden

The composition on today’s CD is:

Symphony No. 2 in D Op. 73

I. Allegro non troppo
II. Adagio non troppo
III. Allegretto grazioso
IV. Allegro con spirito

According to its entry on Wikipedia:

The Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73, was composed by Johannes Brahms in the summer of 1877, during a visit to Pörtschach am Wörthersee, a town in the Austrian province of Carinthia. Its composition was brief in comparison with the fifteen years it took Brahms to complete his First Symphony.

The symphony is scored for the following: Woodwind: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, Brass: 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, Percussion:timpani, Strings: Violin 1 and 2, Viola, Cello and Double Bass.

The cheery and almost pastoral mood of the symphony often invite comparisons with Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, but perhaps mischievously Brahms wrote to his publisher on November 22, 1877, that the symphony “is so melancholy that you will not be able to bear it. I have never written anything so sad, and the score must come out in mourning.”

The premiere was given in Vienna on December 30, 1877 by the Vienna Philharmonic under the direction of Hans Richter…

As I read down farther in the Wiki entry, I come across Continue reading →

Day 307: Johannes Brahms, Symphony No. 1

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BrahmsCD1Today begins a new chapter in my three-year journey, and another exploration of the complete works of a Classical composer.

This time, I will listen to everything Johannes Brahams composed.

Once again, I turn to the wonderful label Brilliant Classics and their Johannes Brahams Complete Edition, which you can buy from Amazon.

I also turn to Wikipedia to tell me more about Johannes Brahms:

Johannes Brahms (7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer and pianist.

Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. In his lifetime, Brahms’s popularity and influence were considerable; following a comment by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow, he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the “Three Bs”.

Brahms composed for piano, chamber ensembles, symphony orchestra, and for voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works; he worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim. Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire. Brahms, an uncompromising perfectionist, destroyed some of his works and left others unpublished.

Brahms is often considered both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is firmly rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Baroque and Classical masters. He was a master of counterpoint, the complex and highly disciplined art for which Johann Sebastian Bach is famous, and of development, a compositional ethos pioneered by Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and other composers.

The musicians on Brahms CD 1 are:

Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra
Jaap van Zweden, conductor

The composition is Symphony No. 1 in C minor Op. 68 and it consists of four movements:

I. Un poco sostenuto – Allegro – Meno allegro
II. Andante sostenuto
III. Un poco allegretto e grazioso
IV. Adagio – Piu andante – Allegro non troppo ma con brio – Piu allegro

I had no idea what to expect with Brahms.

I’m sure I heard something he’s composed at some point in my life, quite possibly on the local Classic music radio station. But Continue reading →