Relayed from
The Queen's Hall, London
(Sole Lessees, Messrs. Chappell and Co., Ltd.)
Brahms Programme
SOLOMON (pianoforte)
THE B.B.C. SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA
(Principal Violin,
CHARLES WOODHOUSE)
Conducted by Sir HENRY WOOD
Part I
ORCHESTRA
Three Hungarian Dances, in G minor,
D minor and F
SOLOMON AND ORCHESTRA
Concerto No. i, in D minor
1. Maestoso ; 2. Adagio; 3. Rondo : Allegro non troppo
One of the things most often said about Brahms's Concertos is that they are symphonies with obbligato solo instruments. This one, to lend colour to such a belief, was first conceived as a symphony ; Brahms himself mentions in a letter to Schumann in 1855, as having the first movement scored and second and third well on the way. Since March, 1854, after a vain effort to take his own life, Schumann had been in a private asylum, and Brahms was doing everything to help that devotion and Royalty could inspire. To Frau Schumann , too, he showed every thoughtful care, encouraging her to hope for better days. The first movement of this concerto has, therefore, a profoundly tragic significance. The conflict and turmoil of spirit which can be heard all through it were a direct result of sympathy with Schumann's tragedy. It was begun while the impression which that made was still fresh in Brahms's sensitive mind. Even today there is something terrifying in the daemonic fury with which its strife is set before us. The slow movement opens very smoothly and broadly, like a good many of Brahms's with a two-fold melody, and the last melody is a Rondo, begun at once by the soloist with the strenuous principal theme.
ORCHESTRA
Symphony No 4, in E minor
1. Allegro non troppo; 2. Andante moderato; 3. Allegro giocoso; 4. Allegro energico e passionato
Brahms's Fourth Symphony has certain qualities which separate it from the other three in mood and structure. It has, for example, an austerity that only an artist self-disciplined in emotional art could have exercised, and a plan that only the practised architect in musical form would have based a symphony upon. While the second symphony is still the most popular, the third the most classically perfect, the fourth will yet, in all probability, excite the most admiration.
The first movement opens straight into the first subject on the violins-a simple, rocking tune, but with an extraordinary sense of pace. Pace, relentless, inevitable, and essentially Brahmsian, is, indeed, even more evident in this symphony than in the others-pace, not speed, but a movement forward. For example, the second subject on the horns and 'cello, is introduced more like a silent gear-change than as something new.
The second movement, lovely, tender, is built, like the first, on two themes: an opening figure on the horns, and another, beautiful, brooding, on the 'cellos. The Scherzo is prevailingly boisterous.
The finale is fashioned as a passacaglia ; that is, the whole movement is built over a recurring eight-bar ' ground ' repeated over and over again. The theme of the ground, given out at once on the wind and brass, is of the simplest scale and cadence type. It appears variously as bass, as melody, as inner part, but is ever present, and is clothed all through with richness and dignity.
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