Programme

PROGRAMME NOTES
development before retreating to its beginnings. The second movement,
Reigen (Round Dance) contains both a waltz and a Ländler, both coexisting in a
synthesis of the old and the new. Interestingly, Reigen was also the name of a
notorious play of the time by Arthur Schnitzler. Its subject was ten dialogues of
sordid sexual encounters and glimpses of Berg’s opera Lulu can certainly be
perceived. The final Marsch is the longest and most powerfully developed
instrumental movement achieved by any of the three composers/friends in their
years of free atonality. The Marsch is grand is style, imaginative, and certainly not
without chaos.
The Three Pieces were heard for the first time in their entirety, on April 14, 1930 in
Oldenburg. Previously, Webern had conducted Nos. 1 and 2 in Berlin in June of 1923.
Programme Note by Columbia Artists Management Inc., 1997
Brahms: Symphony No. 2, D Major, Op. 73
Born: Hamburg, Germany, May 7, 1833
Died: Vienna, Austria, April 3, 1897
Composed: 1877
World Premiere: This piece premiered on December 30, 1877 at Vienna
Musikverein with the Vienna Philharmonic under the direction of Hans Richter.
The Berliner Philharmoniker performed this piece for the first time on January
21, 1887 with Conductor Karl Klindworth.
THE ART OF MUSIC RECORDING
Great music, exclusive editions: This is what the Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings label
stands for. Experience outstanding performances by the Berliner Philharmoniker in the best
quality technology can offer today – in elegantly designed and produced releases, including
audio and video recordings plus extensive booklet.
Now available
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
SYMPHONIES NOS. 1–9
Berliner Philharmoniker
Sir Simon Rattle Conductor
5 CD + 3 Blu-ray
Instruments
2 Flutes
2 Oboes
2 Clarinets
2 Bassoons
4 Horns
2 Trumpets
3 Trombones
Tuba
Timpani
Strings
Johannes Brahms’ Second Symphony differs in almost every respect from his
First: This music of idyllic loveliness, initially concentrated in a pastoral horn
theme, is not directed towards a final climax but rather is made to display the
varied facets of its fundamental lyricism in all four movements. The thematic
content is accordingly songlike. Brahms alludes to Heine setting Op. 71 No. 1
in the first movement’s coda, and he even underlaid the co responding
text “Es liebt sich so lieblich im Lenze!” (“How lovely to love in the springtime”)
in his autograph score. The composer’s worldview, however, was no longer
allowing for unbroken optimism: His contemporaries were disturbed by
the brooding brass chords over a menacing timpani roll that follow the first
presentation of the Allegro’s main theme. Such “cast shadows” (Brahms) dim the
two middle movements as well. The beginning of the finale is entirely optimistic,
though the abrupt incursion of forte euphoria in the first orchestral tutti is
such an atypical gesture for Brahms that it would seem to justify his biographer
Richard Specht’s scepticism over what he perceived as a show of “forced gaiety.”
masseyhall.com | roythomson.com
Order now at
www.berliner-philharmoniker-recordings.com
THE LAST CONCERT
Berliner Philharmoniker
Claudio Abbado Conductor
2 CD + Blu-ray
JEAN SIBELIUS
SYMPHONIES NOS. 1–7
Berliner Philharmoniker
Sir Simon Rattle Conductor
4 CD + 2 Blu-ray