Brahms Symphony No. 1, Favorite Moments: Mvt. 4
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Richard Atkinson discusses his three favorite moments from the final fourth movement of Brahms’s First Symphony in C minor. This is a fair use educational commentary that uses small excerpts from the following performances/recordings:
Brahms: Symphony No. 1
London Philharmonic, Wolfgang Sawallisch
Brahms Symphony No. 2
Wiener Philharmoniker, Leonard Bernstein
Brahms Symphony No. 3
hr-Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt Radio Symphony), Philippe Herreweghe
Brahms Symphony No. 4
Wiener Philharmoniker, Leonard Bernstein
Brahms Piano Trio in B major, Op. 8
Josef Suk, Violin
Janos Starker, Cello
Julius Katchen, Piano
Mozart Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter”
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner
Beethoven Symphony No. 9
hr-Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt Radio Symphony) + MDR Rundfunkchor, Andrés Orozco-Estrada
Wagner: Das Rheingold
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Georg Solti
Donner: Eberhard Wächter
Robert Schumann: Piano Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 47
Quartetto Klimt
Mahler Symphony No. 3
Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Claudio Abbado
Traditional Alphorn Melody
Alphorn players in Nendaz, Switzerland
• Alphorn players in Nen...
Alphorn festival competition, Saturday July 30, 2011
00:00 - Slow introduction, including alphorn theme and trombone chorale
14:49 - Exposition section, including Beethoven theme
21:23 - Combined development/recapitulation section
30:35 - Coda section - เพลง
The Finale is out of this world. It is so epic. I just can’t stop listening to this masterpiece. Brahms was a genius
Hi Richard, I just wanted to take a moment to give you the credit you deserve for the quality, dedication and enthusiasm with which you produce your material. As a conductor who also does a lot of education work as well, the past year has been a baptism of fire in terms of creating online content. Rather than rehearsing the orchestra I conduct in person, we've been running zoom sessions where I'll break down and analyse the pieces we're going to play to a recording of, and the amount of work it takes even for that is no small undertaking. Having also created a huge amount of digital material for my students and the educational organisation I work for this year, the process of not only analysing and planning, but actually pulling one of these videos together is pretty monumental, which is very easy to take for granted when you've never done it before. I've always had huge respect for your analyses (it's like being back in postgrad analysis class, very enjoyable), but the effort it takes to produce something like this really can't be understated. It's pretty amazing.
THAT ENDING!!! IT MADE ME JUMP FOR JOY IN MY SEAT!!!!!!
I've been listening to Brahms symphonies since I was 5. That's 66 years! And I swear I always hear something new happening in them every time I listen. It's amazing. True genius.
I personally believe that the "too early" entrance at bar 301 simply solidifies the entire theme's status as a solemn homage to Schumann; it could just as easily have been written by him.
I've always thought that pink theme sounded like the main subject of the Grosse Fuge when it's inverted.
@@Richard.Atkinson Like Jupiter, especially 36:05
One of the best finales ever written
The pizzicati starting at 18:50 are also the "happily resolved" equivalents of the "scary" pizzicati earlier.
Yes, there are also some similar pizzicato parts in the early part of the recapitulation that I skipped!
My favourite movement of this symphony. :)
Probably mine too.
In this channel, l can learn both of English and knowledge of classical music.
Thank you. From Japan.
Brahms symphonies are beautiful because you hear beauty when you listen to them and you see more beauty when you study them.
It is worth pointing out that Brahms greatly preferred using natural horns, as opposed to ones with stops, and such, all of his orchestra music and his Horn Trio are written under the assumption that the player is using a natural horn.
True! Here's an interesting article I read about that: www.public.asu.edu/~jqerics/brahms-natural-horn.html
Relevant quote:
"One final thought. Is it really natural horn writing if nobody played it on natural horn at the time of composition? Brahms did certainly write only for the natural horn, but there is a case to be made that he knew at some point that players would play the parts on valved horns and at that point the writing does in a sense cease to be natural horn writing and becomes something of an exercise in notations and transposition."
Great as always. Brahms' symphonies have always intimidated me with their prowess of craft, literally every aspect of them is grandiose. Counterpoint, cyclic integration, motivic connection of literally every bar of music, the grand scheme of forms, the beauty of melody, orchestration technique, rhythmic ingenuity or harmony. Literally any given time I looked into one of his scores, I discovered something incredible I haven't noticed the times before.
Oh, and the Op. 8 trio is also amazing in its own right. I think it deserves video by itself, don't you agree?
I'm glad you mentioned the Wagner connection - for me it was the "Trombone theme" itself - which you highlight in light turquoise - that originally reminded me of Wagner, so many years ago. It has a very similar color and harmonic language to the opening of Tannhauser, at least to my ears.
Something else I find interesting about the Alpenhorn theme is that the figure at B + 2 measures (I think m. 32) sounds identical to part of the horn melody in the also-Alps-inspired Schubert Symphony No. 9 (No. 7) in C major. So much so, that in my head I can barely resist inserting Schubert's string entrance that immediately follows into the Brahms!
Interesting, that same spot also made me think of wagner when i initially listened to this piece although it made me think of the valhalla motif, which is why i always pictue a large castle at that spot
as a fellow Brahms-obsessive I really love these videos - these are some of your best work
That flute player rushes like crazy too! Lenny with Vienna is my favorite version of this symphony- he's never afraid to take his time in the right spots.
One video of yours is enough to make my week. Your explanatory vituosity really shone through. Thanks a lot!
I wish I had the time to make one every week!
@@Richard.Atkinson for me, quality should override quantity, that's why i like your content. On a different note, i wish one day you would do a Stravinsky video, no pressure, just an idea.
@@mjrbruckner9539 Rite of Spring someday!
The ending of this symphony is also a very famous audition excerpt for timpani!
I’d love to see a video on your top 5 timpani moments in the orchestral repertoire
So many great timpani moments just in the Brahms symphonies alone! Probably my favorite of these is the timpani part during that final plagal cadence in Symphony No. 4, first movement!
Sure to include opening of Beethoven 9th 2nd mvt!
What amazing genius to set the timpani F-F (instead of tonic-dominant, in this case D-A) in a d minor movement wtf
That section before 29 minutes... amazing low strings! These videos have revealed to me how much of the thematic material I've been missing with uncle brahms' disguising so much of it. Like with the re-entry of the yellow theme, you get a vague feeling with those fragments before the theme is revealed to you magically in its full splendour. What a treat for the ears, and what a video as usual!
Thank you for bringing academical content into youtube
I just admire your videos so much because you don't ramble about unnecessary stuff. So endless "subscribe to my channel" "like my video" "share the video" etc. Just very interesting and very educational straight forward information. You don't talk about something unrelated to the topic (the only exception are your comparisons to Haydn, which I love a lot because they always show interesting things and help to explain the music further, actually my knowledge of Haydn is growing with each one of your videos). You manage to get a lot across in a very educational but also incredibly entertaining way.
Thank you for that
How very true!
Yeah, I hate when other TH-camrs do that, so I try not to. But, most people tell me my channel would grow bigger if I started begging for likes and shares. I guess I don't care as much about that as some people.
@@Richard.Atkinson your channel really does deserve a lot more attention. We all highly appreciate your work and you can be sure that you will always have my support. I and my classical music friends love your videos and you as a person seem to be a lot more decent and respectable than most other TH-camrs
Favorite moments and the video is 38 min long. I guess that says it all, you just love every second of it.
The "Beethoven theme" can be heard almost identical in the first movement of Brahms' piano trio op. 101.
Brahms takes a theme and develops it in the classical tradition, but the results are romantic . Such emotion and profundity with in the structure. And no middle ,early or late periods. He was born old. I just wish he had written better finales for the 2 piano concerti!
C Minor brewing in the depths of C Major only to be overtaken by C Major again in the coda, reminds me of the Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony Finale that has the C Minor Scherzo material come back in the middle of the movement. Makes sense as this C minor symphony is probably the most Beethoven influenced of all 4 of Brahms’ symphonies.
And let's not forget all that short-short-short-long rhythms in movement one! I'm annoyed when the conductor doesn't bring them out more.
what a wonderful video to watch while making and eating breakfast :)
also, I can't help but be reminded of the famous Aino theme from Sibelius's 7th symphony when I hear that alphorn theme.
The ending reminds me of an ending section in Mahler's 1st symphony.
Yes, the “march-like” rhythm at the end is similar to what Mahler uses at the end of his 1st Symphony.
The "Hallelujah Chorus" section!
Wonderful! Looking forward to the next Brahms video!
Incredible breakdown of all four movements. Thoroughly enjoyed and extremely helpful to understanding this symphony on another level !!
I've been waiting fot this!
Finally, have been really looking forward to this
32:28 I hadn't noticed that motif occurring all throughout the Brahms symphonies but now I won't be able to un-notice it!
It's easy to overanalyze Brahms, and this motif is so tiny that you can find it in almost any piece of music, but when it begins so many of the actual themes, I think the connection is worth mentioning!
@@Richard.Atkinson I love your videos. This is yet another fantastic one.
I was struck by how similar this motif is to the subject of the fugue finale of Brahms's Handel Variations for piano. It is 2 half steps alternating twice, so your "symphony-cycle glue" motif is two-thirds of it!
If you don't know this piece, please have a listen. The fugue comes as the culmination of 25 mins of music which shifts through every mood and feeling imaginable, bringing everything together with this half-step motif underpinning. I'm sure there is a place for a video on it in your current Brahms series (so glad you are on Brahms at the moment!)
Please keep up the wonderful work 🥰
Thank you for your work! I know this symphony since very long ago, but every time I found something new, and this time thanks to your excellent video!
Amazing video of a marvellous work
Outstanding ! Thankyou so much for this video .
Awesome stuff
Merci c’est magnifique.
Always worth setting aside the time to watch your excellent videos
Watching your videos just makes me want to write. I can't get past like a quarter of your episodes because I'm just too dang inspired. Great channel, glad there is someone who wants to break these pieces down and inspect them.
Thanks for another great video. I'd love to see you do Brahms' first piano concerto, with all of the fascinating thematic transformations in the first movement.
I've been constantly humming the Beethoven theme to myself for three days now! It goes together well with the main theme from Mendelssohn's string quartet no. 1, mvmt. 1.
I'm glad you mentioned Mozart's Jupiter symphony here!
Beautiful work , a labor of love just like anything related to music should be. Would you please do an analysis of Schubert 8 mainly in relation to the fugue, thanks
What a masterpiece... Great video as well! Towards the end, where you looked at that half-step motif as a unifying motif for the four symphonies, that blew my mind! Also, the alphorn motif must surely be up there as one of the most beautifull moments in symphonic repertoire...
It's easy to overanalyze Brahms, and this motif is so tiny that you can find it in almost any piece of music, but when it begins so many of the actual themes, I think the connection is worth mentioning!
WOW. Your video has really increase in quality. I absolutely love your videos. I wish you could see the look on my face when i got the notification, and i dont really like Brahms (yet).
I wished you could do this for all of Beethoven symphonies, but i understand you're busy.
Thanks again!
The “Alphorn” theme actually reminds me of a different Wagner motif from the Ring Cycle, the “Golden Apples” motif first heard in the second scene of Das Rheingold. It has the same first 4 notes and similar rhythmic structure.
Great work, as always. This is my favorite movement of the symphony.
I think the fourth movements, collectively, are the best movements of all Brahms’ symphonies. It’s very difficult for me to pick a favorite finale among the 1st, 3rd, and 4th symphonies.
I agree in general, but for the 4th Symphony, the 1st movement is almost equal to the finale.
@@Richard.Atkinson That is a beautiful movement. Brahms has my favorite collection of symphonies, so it is like splitting hairs to a degree.
Thanks for doing this series. Looking forward to the next part!
This video is comfortable to my brain
Haha love sassy Richard at 13:20. The brass chorale that comes near the beginning and the ending always reminded me of the one in Alpensinfonie, which, however also comes at the end of "Vision" at the literal "peak" of the piece.
That stupid flautist! 😅 Sadly, I listened to a bunch of other recordings and none of the other flautists had less vibrato, though some of them were more in-tune.
Thank you! I think more rigorous and serious work is needed rather than TWOSETVIOLIN videos. You really inspire me to resume my position in my senior high orchestra from my middle school one.
What a help you have been to me over the last few years. Come to London when this virus is over and I'll take you for a British Roast Beef Lunch that only we can do. Your channel is wonderful. You should be so proud.
That sounds like a great plan!
@@Richard.Atkinson Let me know Richard. I mean it. David A.
Great analysis, not just of this movement, but the whole symphony! In one of my undergraduate music theory courses, we had team projects where we analyzed the Brahms symphonies, and my team was assigned his first. I remember that we decided to call the alphorn theme the “thank you, come again” theme, lol!. Incidentally, I was a double major (chemistry and music - piano performance) then went on to get my Ph.D in analytical chemistry, which is the field I have continued to work in for the past twenty years. Anyhow, music analysis has always been and continues to be a great passion of mine, and your channel is the best out there because of your intelligent insight and ability to steer clear of musicological nonsense. I really am looking forward to your analysis of the rest of Brahms’ symphony cycle!!
"musicological nonsense" - Yes, I'm always flabbergasted that musicologists can write entire books about music without actually talking about music.
the mustard motive always gets me :)
The long awaited video has finally arrived! I love your videos.
Also, do you like old-timey cartoons?
I do! I included a couple in this video.
Great discussion! I do want to add a couple of thoughts: 1. Is the use of the upper and lower neighbor motif so prevalent in Brahms an influence from the gypsy/Hungarian music he heard so much as a young man? 2. I had a small argument with my college theory teacher about the form of movement 4. She called it a sonatina because he recaps the Beethoven theme right after the expositiion ends. I argued that the actual development section follows that theme recap and results in the recap of the horn theme from the intro. (She said that whole section was simply a long transition.) What I think Brahms was doing here is recapping the Beethoven theme - which is obviously very staid and formal sounding - before he gets into the drama and struggle of the development so as to not interrupt the emotional drive toward the coda. Emotionally, the horn theme recap feels very unlike it's first entrance. It's now sounding like an exhausted short break from the struggle before he gets back into the battle. And, like so many of the romantics, the listener is pointed emotionally toward the coda. Just imagine how different the piece would be if the Beethoven theme were placed much nearer the end!
Can you make a video of your favorite moments from Brahms' 4th symphony? There's one particular canon moment in the development section of the 1st movement that warms my heart!
I'm doing videos on all the movements of Brahms's Symphonies. Part of me wants to skip straight to Symphony No. 4, since it's my favorite, but I'll probably keep going in order.
36:05 The "pink theme" here probably also comes from Jupiter.
Or at first appearance (second theme of exposition) Brahms has already planned for its relevance to Jupiter finale's opening theme.
Clicked straight away.
Great video about a great symphony (my Brams favorite one is the 4th). Have you ever thought about analyzing an Alban Berg's piece (I'm thinking about the violin concerto "Zum Andenken eines Engels") ?
BTW I think Mozart borrowed that orange motif from Michael Haydn's 28 symphony finale, its worth a listen.
bravo
29:02 The most magical theme-return
The purple chromatic motif takes my breath away!
😭😭the Beethoven theme is too beautiful…possibly more so than ode to joy itself 🫣
Great analysis as usual....only I wish you'd use Tennstedt's recording for the musical examples. No one treats the "shimmering strings accompanying the alp horn motif quite the same way. You should give it a listen.
Listening to this especially the introduction of the second theme the criticism aimed at Edward Elgar seems make some sense.
Nice
Hello, I would love it if you could cover Mahler 9, especially the first movement. I am trying to write some music in the style of this first movement, so it would be really helpful for me!
On the topic of Brahms 1, an analysis of Mahler 3 (beginning with the minor version of Brahms's ode) would be amazing too! Great video :)
Mahler's 9th is one of my favorite symphonies (possibly my favorite), so this will likely happen in the future!
The section starting at 32:00 always seems to be problematic in live performance for some reason. Especially 32:20. Done perfectly here
My favorite moment is the second occurrence of the pizzicato 😂😂
5:34 The retrogradation of the green theme is used as part of the "Beethoven" theme, isn't it? 15:43 The rhythm and an some intervals are changed but still I think it is enough to be considered a real connection.
If I may critique your performance critique, I've heard flute players don't like to be called "flautists". Not sure if it's true, my roommate in college was dating a flute player. Who knows?
Music is beautiful, well done.
The rule in general is that Europeans are flautists and Americans are flutists. Personally, I don't care as long as you don't think I play sharp! 🤣
@@AnaleenAelwyn it's kind of like, I don't like the way some people pronounce "pianist." To me it should be pi-Ah-nist. I'm not going to get upset if someone refers to me as something that sounds like a private male body part, but right or wrong, preferences do exist.
Loving this channel! May I ask you why there aren't pieces from Chopin? Do you like his music?
I love Chopin. I have a video planned for the Barcarolle!
Why can I hear a resemblance with the Beethoven theme and the introductory theme of the first movement of Schubert's 9th? The end of the line of the Beethoven theme has EXACTLY the same notes just different note lengths. The rest, I don't know.
I could watch you talking about Brahms for hours. Love his music!
Maybe in the future you could consider making a video about some of his chamber music? Like for instance the piano quartets or the trio in Am
What you call the Beethoven Theme seems to me to also bear some resemblance to the opening theme of the Schubert Great C Major Symphony, in its 2nd version with pizza. accompaniment. I enjoy your videos.
True! The pizzicato and the rhythm of the first 3 notes are similar.
I don't think its more than SLIGHTLY reminiscent of Beethoven. Not enough to be labeled
" the Beethoven theme". Johannes would NOT have liked that name. Its a Brahms theme!
could you analys brahms symphony 2 next??
8:57 this painting gets a 3/10 from me
You don't think those hands are realistic? It kind of looks like a finger painting project of a grade school student.
👏
What's the difference between "Blob Opera" and "Mii Maestro"?
Around 32, when it accelerates towards Coda, is it just me who feels it is kind of rushing and incomplete? The transition? I want to hear your idea
He references a video on 1st mvt. of Symphony # 2, but I can't find this video. Does anybody have a link?
This wasn't a reference to a video. I haven't yet created a video on that movement, but it's on my to do list.
@@Richard.Atkinson My favorite Brahms Symphony. Can't wait to see your analysis.
403 likes 0 dislikes!
Also sprarcht Zarathustra plsssssssssssssssssss
I might do a video just about the fugal part!
I see what you mean with the vibrato. AaAaAaAaAaAaAaAa
I've tried recreating it but it's too wavy. The way I tried to get that wavy was literally just shaking my flute. It didn't sound good at all.
The performance is so laborious and heavy... :-( And the vibrato of the flutist is so wide...
Wide vibrato is a crutch used by performers who can’t play in tune. It irritates me to no end!
@@Richard.Atkinson Chailly/Gewandhaus Leipzig th-cam.com/video/rICaiUlgFCA/w-d-xo.html
@@Richard.Atkinson I wish you'd made the point about tuning in the video, instead of vibrato. As a flutist, I think that's the major issue here. The flutist is playing sharp and thin, which makes the vibrato much more noticeable. If he or she would drop the lower jaw and relax, it would almost certainly fix *both* problems, and allow for a much more relaxed vibrato.
When I say it's "thin", I mean the tone needs more of the harmonic series included. Flutes have the ability to sound multiple harmonics at once, though the primary one is always most prominent, of course. When a flutist has a very tight embouchure, the harmonics are squashed or eliminated, giving a "thin" sound.
I have also heard that many orchestral flutist "would rather play sharp than flat" because the general public won't notice a sharp sound as much as a flat one. That is probably the tuning issue here, because as a result, many flutist play intentionally sharp. *cough*Galway*cough* In my opinion, it is better to play in tune than be either sharp or flat! >_
First
bro who asked