Oct. 26, 2024, 8 p.m., in Mehta Hall, Daniele Gatti conducts Johannes Brahms' Symphonies 2 and 4
Leading the Maggio Orchestra, on the podium of the Sala Mehta, the Principal Conductor Daniele Gatti
On the program, Saturday October 26th 2024 at 8 pm, are Symphony No. 2 in D major op. 73 and Symphony No. 4 in E minor op. 98 with which Maestro Gatti concludes the cycle dedicated to Johannes Brahms
We inform our kind audience that the seats for the concert are quickly selling out and only tickets for the seats in the Choir stand are still available
Florence, October 25th, 2024 – After the great successes of the concerts on October 10th and 17th, the cycle – with principal conductor Daniele Gatti at the helm of the Orchestra del Maggio – dedicated to Johannes Brahms is coming to an end with the Ein deutsches Requiem and his four symphonies.
Opening the concert on Saturday, October 26th at 8 pm, in the Mehta Hall, will be the Symphony No. 2 in D major, op. 73. The speed with which Brahms created the new composition was surprising when compared to the very long gestation of his first symphonic effort. If Symphony No. 1 had been hailed as the ‘Tenth Symphony’, alluding to the Beethovenian legacy of which Brahms was the custodian and guarantor, the Second was called both ‘pastoral’, for its predominantly lyrical and melodic character, and ‘Viennese’, for the waltz rhythm present in two of the four movements.
The concert continues with the Symphony no. 4 in E minor op. 98: ten years after his first attempt in the symphonic field, Brahms had by now confirmed his value after having built step by step his own language in the name of classicism revisited through romantic sensitivity. In Symphony no. 4, compositional virtuosity marries a cantability steeped in melancholy, giving life to a musical discourse where each thematic idea is meticulously shaped before finding its ideal placement.
The program:
JOHANNES BRAHMS
Symphony No. 2 in D major, op. 73
Just a year had passed since the presentation of Symphony No. 1 when, in the summer of 1877, on the shores of Lake Wörth in Carinthia, Symphony No. 2 in D major, op. 73, saw the light. The speed with which Brahms created the new composition was surprising when compared to the very long gestation, lasting almost twenty years, that accompanied his first symphonic creation. If the First had been hailed as the ‘Tenth Symphony’, alluding to the Beethovenian legacy of which Brahms was the custodian and guarantor, the Second was called both ‘pastoral’, for its predominantly lyrical and melodic character, and ‘Viennese’, for the waltz rhythm present in two of the four movements. The incipit of the work is a motto of just three notes intoned by the low strings to which the horns, bassoons, flutes and clarinets respond. It may seem like an introduction but in reality it is already the fundamental piece with which Brahms builds the first theme and from there the entire symphonic discourse. The following Adagio is a page of intense lyricism that welcomes the chamber sounds of wind instruments and strings to the lulling rhythm of the berceuse, while the Allegretto grazioso with its two Trios moves carefree with a bucolic dance step. In the last movement, to establish the connection with the beginning of the symphony, the initial motto of three notes reappears that Brahms transforms with countless rhythmic-melodic combinations in the general triumph of the orchestra.
Symphony no. 4 in E minor op. 98
During the summer holidays of 1884 and 1885 Brahms worked on composing Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98, the last in his catalogue. Ten years after his first and much-feared attempt in the symphonic field, Brahms had by now confirmed his value in the field after having built step by step his own language in the name of classicism revisited through romantic sensibility. In Symphony No. 4, compositional virtuosity marries a melancholy-tinged cantability, giving life to a musical discourse where each thematic idea is meticulously shaped before finding its ideal location. The first movement, for example, is constructed entirely from an interval of a third and its inversion; these are minimal materials that in the hands of a craftsman of notes like Brahms are exploited to their full potential. The second theme is also built on intervals of a third, as are all the other thematic ideas that seem to sprout from that same seed of infinite potential. And if in the initial Allegro the composer constructs an entire and complex movement with a few simple intervals, in the grandiose final Allegro he decides to show off the highest contrapuntal mastery. Brahms in fact closes the short but intense chapter of his symphonic production with a Chaconne (a series of variations on an ostinato bass) based on a theme derived from Bach's Cantata BWV 150. A choice that celebrates the musical tradition to which it belongs and establishes, at the same time, the point of no return of Romantic symphonism.