For first-time listeners, Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 in E minor might be stunning and expectation-shattering.
Composed in 1884, Brahms’ closing symphony doesn’t take the journey from darkness to mild (a minor key to a significant key) charted by so many Romantic symphonies, starting with Beethoven’s Fifth. Negating the heroic transformation of his First Symphony, Brahms leaves us with a stark, tragic decision in E minor. He concludes the Symphony with a mighty passacaglia, a Baroque type that includes variations above a repeating bass line, seldom present in symphonic music.
Brahms’ Fourth develops from a single strand of musical DNA—a series of falling and rising thirds, performed by the violins within the opening of the primary motion. Infused with quiet melancholy, this haunting melody units in movement a steady stream of unfolding strains, a sort of natural development that composer Arnold Schoenberg referred to as “creating variation.” The unrelenting energy of those natural strains surprised listeners when Brahms performed the rating on the piano for a gaggle of shut pals. The critic Eduard Hanslick, who turned pages for that preliminary efficiency mentioned, “For this entire motion I had the sensation that I used to be being given a beating by two extremely clever individuals.” He later described the work as resembling “a darkish effectively; the longer we glance into it, the extra brightly the celebs shine again.”
The exposition part of the primary motion (Allegro non troppo) concludes with spirited fanfares. The opening motif returns, falsely suggesting the standard repeat of the exposition part, however we’re quickly swept into the event part. One putting passage includes a dreamy musical dialog between strings and winds. The music tiptoes again dwelling to the recapitulation with the opening theme slowed down and accompanied by ghostly ascending strains. Brahms returned to the motion’s fragmented opening motif in his closing work, Vier ernste Gesänge (4 Severe Songs), Op. 121, accompanying the phrases, “O demise! O demise!”
Launched by two horns, the primary theme of the second motion (Andante moderato) is modal, set in a wistful E Phrygian. Commentator Karl Geiringer described it as “the shadow of an inevitable destiny.” Right here once more, probably the most seemingly insignificant musical line is ripe for growth. On the motion’s climax, the horn theme is tossed across the orchestra in an ever-intensifying contrapuntal dialog. In distinction is the majestic, hymn-like second theme. Close to the tip of the motion, to my ears, the clarinets intone a ghostly remembrance of the second motion of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (24:39).
The third motion (Allegro giocoso) is an exuberant scherzo in 2/4 time, punctuated with the shimmering addition of the triangle within the percussion part.
From joyful C main, the Symphony is pulled again to tragic E minor within the opening bars of the ultimate motion (Allegro energico e passionato), starting with an ominous wind choir. Thirty variations unfold over the passacaglia bass line, derived from the closing motion of Bach’s cantata, Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150. In tender, contemplative moments, the music veers into the key, solely to be brutally reduce off by the return of E minor. Hammer blows fall, and the three trombones emerge as voices of the supernatural. The ferocious closing cadence delivers a tragic “farewell.”
This efficiency, recorded in Hamburg in Might of 2007, options Christoph von Dohnányi and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra:
