- Symphonies Nos. 3 and 4
Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra bring to a close their celebrated Brahms symphony cycle with the release of Brahms’ third and fourth Symphonies.
The specific titles of these works is shown below:
Brahms:
- Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90
- Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98
Performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev conducting.
In contrast to Richard Strauss, Brahms is often associated with abstract music, free of “Programs” or images. He was a master at composing music that is often alluding to old Gregorian chants, or slightly influenced by other composers. Still, with the third symphony, the composer wrote in many ways his most personal work.
Brahms composed the Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 in 1884. Brahms began working on this piece in Mürzzuschlag, Austria, about a year after completing the third symphony.
The Fourth is the last of Brahms’ symphonies; he died about two weeks after the first performance at the large hall of the Friends of Music in Vienna.
Brahms’ creative, inventive, and structural musical skills are nowhere more evident than in his fourth and final symphony. I find this work to be a symphony of great beauty, with wonderful lyricism, and amazing interplay among the strings, winds and brass of the orchestra.
Here is the Brahms Symphony No.3, with Bernard Haitink conducting:
http://youtu.be/XK4NcLcUH9o
And next, here is Carlos Kleiber conducting the Brahms Symphony No.4 (4th movement):
Tags: Johannes Brahms, Symphony #3, Symphony #4, London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev, Carlos Kleiber, Bernard Haitink
