Brahms:
- Symphony No. 2
As many of you know, I love the music of Johannes Brahms, and I actually visited some of the villages in Austria where Brahms composed and spent his summer vacations.
From my own experience, Brahms’ symphonies #2 and 4 are particularly reflective of the beautiful Austrian countryside. The second symphony was composed during Brahms’ visit to Pörtschach am Wörthersee, a town in the Austrian province of Carinthia.
The feeling I get from these sounds is a sense of sunny well-being, a sense of lyric beauty, quietness, even holiness.
On this recording, we get to listen to the following music:
Brahms:
- Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73
- Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80
- Tragic Overture, Op. 81
Performed by Budapest Festival Orchestra, Iván Fischer conducting.
This symphony was composed in 1877, and the conductor, Iván Fischer, said the following:
“Is this one of Brahms’ most nature-related symphony? Considering the complicated organisms being developed from the simplest cells, yes it is. Brahms certainly had the divine, creative talent to show us how this process can work in music”
In addition to Brahms’ sunny second symphony, the CD also contains the Tragic overture, and the Academic Festival overture.
Iván Fischer is founder and Music Director of the Budapest Festival Orchestra. This partnership with the orchestra has become one of the great success stories in the past 25 years of classical music.
I was unable to locate a video of Mr. Fischer for the Brahms second. So, here is the Brahms Symphony No. 2, with Kurt Masur directing the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, in the third and fourth movements.
And let me end with an orchestra that has this music in its DNA. Here is Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 with the Wiener Philharmoniker, Leonard Bernstein conducting:
http://youtu.be/n-qMtWVf0NA
Tags: Johannes Brahms, Symphony #2, Academic Festival Overture, Tragic Overture, Iván Fischer, Budapest Festival Orchestra