(Section B)
Leader, Paul Beard
Conductor, Sir Adrian Boult
In a letter to his publisher in 1880, Brahms told him about a 'very merry Academic Festival Overture, with Gaudeamus and all sorts of things ... Having been given this opportunity, I could not forbear to satisfy my melancholy disposition by writing an overture for a tragedy as well '. However, the very powerful
. and dramatic ' Tragic ' Overture has no programme other than the expression of the mood that the title suggests.