I was 14 years old when I was accepted into my very first orchestra. And I recall the experience of my learning the 2nd violin orchestra part for this composition. And the rehearsals were magical, because I was a part of a large group of Doctors, lawyers, and other professionals who made music together.
Brahms composed this concerto in the summer of 1887, and it was first performed on 18 October of that year in Köln, Germany.
Brahms wrote it for the cellist Robert Hausmann, a frequent chamber music collaborator, and his old — but at that time estranged — friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim.
I have always found this work to be passionate, lyrical, and full of wonderful melodies. The third movement has one of these typical Brahmsian themes that once you hear it, you sing or whistle it for the rest of the day.
Here are Renaud Capuçon, violin, and Gautier Capucon, Cello, in Brahms’ Double Concerto, Op 102:
And next, just for comparison, here are violinist Julia Fischer and cellist Daniel Muller-Schott. They are for the current generation what Perlman and Yo Yo Ma were for the last generation. That is to say, you couldn’t have put a better pair of performers on stage, each playing at the top of their powers:
And finally, here is the third movement of Johannes Brahms’ Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra, with Truls Mørk, cello; Lisa Batiashvili, violin, and Sir Simon Rattle, conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker:
Tell me which of these you like best. My preference is the recording by the two Capucon brothers.
Tags: Johannes Brahms, Double Concerto, violin, cello, Capucon, Julia Fischer, Truls Mørk, Lisa Batiashvili
