Brahms: Complete Symphonies

When Johannes Brahms completed his First Symphony at Lichtentaal in 1876, it represented not only his greatest compositional achievement to date, but also the culmination of 14 years preparatory work. The Second Symphony was composed in a flurry of inspiration following hard upon the heels of the First in less than a year, during the summer of 1877 in the village of Pörtschach on the Wörthersee, from where Brahms wrote contentedly to a friend: „Here the melodies flow so freely that one must be careful not to tread on them“. There could hardly be a greater contrast between the dramatic opening of the First Symphony and the sense of well-being consistently generated by the Second. The Third Symphony was begun in 1882 and completed during the summer of 1883 at Wiesbaden. As so often with Brahms when he composed a number of distinctive works within the same genre, the symphony can be seen to build directly upon its predecessors, combining and resolving the intensity and drama of the First with the mellow lyricism of the Second. The Fourth Symphony was composed at Brahms´ holiday home in Mürzzuschlag during the summers of 1884 and 1885. It represents the culmination of Brahms´s work as a symphonist, returning as it does to the thematic density of the First Symphony, tempered by a grace and ease reminiscent of so many of the composer´s late „autumnal“ works. The outer movements are typically dramatic in mood, while the two inner movements are contrastingly relaxed. This is a recording of the Wiener Symphoniker under the direction of Wolfgang Sawallisch.