Download Johannes Brahms ( 1833-1897)

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Double Concerto for Violin and Cello (1887)
Brahms was born and began his musical career in Hamburg, Germany. When he called on
Robert Schumann, the older composer recognized the greatness of his 20-year old visitor, found a
publisher for his early piano works, wrote about him in the musical press, and arranged for his
appearance as a concert pianist. Brahms remained loyal to the Schumanns, and after Robert died
in 1856, he maintained a deep attachment to Clara Schumann and continued their correspondence
over the next forty years.
Brahms settled in Vienna in the early 1870s and eventually became its musical leader. He
was a conservative among Romantic composer, and while his music has the freedom and
emotional expressiveness of that era, it retains the Classical emphasis on structure, with extensive
use of traditional techniques such as counter point and variation. In recent Concord Orchestra
program notes for a Brahms symphony, Sidney Wanzer reported that Arnold Schoenberg thought
that "Brahms was an innovator . . . His works were actually a bridge from the traditional forms of
Beethoven to those of the twentieth century."
"Brahms is not far removed from our own day," continued Dr. Wanzer. "We can feel that
bridge from past to present when we consider that Lore Pittman, wife of the Concord Orchestra's
conductor, recalls her great aunt speaking of having sat as a child in the lap of the great composer.
Brahms early in his career had been the piano teacher for her great aunt's mother, and in those
days the teacher came to the home of the pupil. Brahms had been invited to stay for dinner, and
Lore's great aunt as a twelve year old was invited to sit in Brahms's lap. She ate from his plate!"
In addition to chamber music, Brahms wrote 250 lieder in the tradition of Schubert and
Schumann, piano and orchestral works including a concerto for violin, two piano concertos, two
concert overtures, four symphonies, and the Double Concerto for Violin and Cello.
Double Concerto for Violin & Cello was Brahms's last orchestral composition. Testing its
concept with Clara Schumann, he wrote, "I ought to have passed on the idea to someone who
knows the fiddle better than I do… It is quite a different matter to write for instruments whose
nature and sound one has only approximately in one's head, and hears only in imagination, rather
than to write for an instrument one knows thoroughly, as I do the piano." With technical advice
from his friends, violinist Joseph Joachim and cellist Robert Hausmann, he succeeded famously,
and conducted the Concerto's first performance in Cologne in 1887.
I. Allegro. The orchestra opens the first theme followed by the unaccompanied cello's own
embellished version, answered by the woodwinds, and joined in duet by solo violin. A second
lyrical subject is introduced by cello soon joined by violin. Soloists and orchestra share in the
development of the two intertwined principal themes. The movement ends with the soloists in
octaves primarily in the triplet pattern heard throughout the movement.
II. Andante. An opening horn call announces a gentle flowing melody by the soloists and
orchestral strings. A second theme by woodwinds and a third triplet figure by the soloists are
joined by the opening theme to end the movement. A series of accompanying pizzicato chords by
orchestral strings adds a sense of repose.
III. Vivace non troppo. Solo cello leads into a vigorous theme which dominates the
movement. In his BBC Music Guide, Horton describes later passages as having "Hungarian-Gipsy
coloring" suggesting "eastern Europe in its syncopated lilt, and … bravura variations." At the
close, the soloists' brilliant passages are accompanied primarily by woodwinds and horns,
orchestral strings returning for the final tutti."
― Richard Porter
References
Recording. Toscanini & NBC S.O., RCA 60259.
Horton, John. Brahms Orchestral Music, BBC Music Guides, London, 1968
Neumayr, Anton. Music and Medicine, Vol. 2, Medi-Ed Press, Bloomington IL 1995
Swafford, Jan. Johannes Brahms, a Biography. Random House, N.Y., 1987
Wanzer, Sidney. Concord Orchestra Program Notes for Symphony No. 1,