Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg, Germany, on May 7, 1833, and died in Vienna, Austria, on April 3, 1897. The first performance of the Academic Festival Overture took place in Breslau, Germany (now, Wrocław, Poland), on January 4, 1881, with the composer conducting. The Academic Festival Overture is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, and strings. Approximate performance time is ten minutes.
In 1880, in response to receiving an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Breslau, Johannes Brahms composed his Academic Festival Overture. This spirited work that incorporates student melodies also proved to be the inspiration for another, and quite different composition. In a letter dated September 4, 1880, Brahms informed his publisher, Simrock: “I have promised for Jan. 6th in Breslau and have had to write a very lively Academic Festival Overture which contains Gaudeamus and all sorts of other things. On this occasion I could not deny my melancholy turn of mind and have also composed an Overture to a Tragedy.” As Brahms told composer Carl Reinecke: “One of them weeps, the other laughs.” Both the Tragic (Opus 81) and Academic Festival (Opus 80) Overtures are staples of the orchestral repertoire.
Brahms conducted the first performance of the Academic Festival Overture in Breslau on January 4, 1881. Brahms described the work as “A jolly potpourri of student songs à la (Franz von) Suppé.” Brahms does indeed quote several student songs as the basis for an overture that proceeds in sonata form, with a mysterious introduction, followed by the exposition, development, and restatement of themes, all capped by a brilliant coda. In that coda, the song “Gaudeamus igitur” provides the majestic conclusion.
Program notes by Ken Meltzer
