BBC Symphony Orchestra
(Leader, Paul Beard)
Conducted by Clarence Raybould
No symphony was ever more eagerly awaited than Brahms' First. For years his friends had urged him to write such a work; and although he had had it in mind for a long time, and had shown the opening movement to Clara Schumann as early as 1862. it was not until 18"6. when he was forty-three, that it was finally produced at Karlsruhe. With its nobility, grandeur, and depth of feeling it created a tremendous impression and was hailed as ' the Tenth,' partly perhaps because the great tune in the finale bears a resemblance to the one in Beethoven's Ninth.
In March of the following year Brahms'
Symphony was performed, for the first time In this country, at Cambridge. Joachm conducted, and Stanford, who deserves the credit for organising it. said that the event attracted almost every musician of importance in England and ' set an imperishable keystone ' on Brahms' fame here. Harold Rutland