(Section B)
Leader, Paul Beard
Conducted by Clarence Raybould
In 1854 Schumann told the twenty-two-year-old Brahms that it was his ' duty ' to write a symphony. Brahms set to work, but soon declared that the attempt was a miserable failure, for ' symphony is no laughing matter nowadays '. At last, after twenty-two more years of careful thought and experimenting, he completed his Symphony No. I in C minor which was hailed as a worthy successor to Beethoven's ' Ninth '. Hardly had the applause of the world of music died down when Brahms produced his Symphony No. 2 in D.
Although this latter symphony is conceived on just as big a scale as the C minor Symphony, the texture of the music is actually very much clearer, the melodies more cantabile in character, and the whole spirit of the music brighter-it has been called Brahms's ' Pastoral' Symphony.