Brahms Symphony No. 2 LIVE w/ The Aalborg Symphony

About this episode

This episode explores Brahms' Symphony No. 2 and its complex emotional landscape, contrasting joy with underlying shadows.

Brahms spent much of his adult life battling with his ambition to write the next great symphony and his terror at the shadow of Beethoven standing behind him. Brahms tortured himself for 14 years with his first symphony, and only published it when he was 49 years old. But when that symphony finally came out, it was a relative success for a new work, and with immense relief, Brahms quickly turned out another symphony in just 4 months. Brahms' first symphony was quickly dubbed "Beethoven's 10th" something that annoyed Brahms to no end. When told that the main theme of the last movement resembled the Ode to Joy, he notoriously responded, "any ass can see that!" But all the same, Brahms had been re-anointed as Beethoven's successor with the symphony, and so therefore his second symphony would also be given a Beethovinian name, Pastoral. The question since the symphony has been written has been this: just how pastoral and idyllic is this symphony? Many commentators see an unadulterated joy and gentleness in the piece, with some melancholy moments to be sure. But overall, the piece is as sunny as it seems on its surface, with just the typical battles between happiness and sadness that…

People in this episode

Host: Joshua Weilerstein

Topics covered

• Brahms
• symphony
• classical music
• Beethoven
• musical analysis
• joy and melancholy

Keywords

• Brahms
• Symphony No. 2
• classical music
• Aalborg Symphony
• Beethoven
• musical themes
• pastoral

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Aalborg Symphony

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