Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

THE STORY

The long development of Brahms’ First Symphony can be encapsulated in a comment the composer wrote to a friend: “I shall never write a symphony! You have no idea how it feels to hear behind you the tramp of a giant like Beethoven.” 

Brahms’ early contributions for the orchestra, including his First Piano Concerto and his Variations on a Theme by Haydn, feel like preparations for his first dive into the lauded genre. The first sketches of the First Symphony were written when he was 23 years old; he finished revising the work nearly 20 years later. 

Though he was already an established and celebrated composer, Brahms chose to have the premiere in the small German town of Karlsruhe. He wrote to the conductor of the orchestra, “It was always my cherished and secret wish to hear the thing first in a small town which possessed a good friend, a good conductor and a good orchestra.” 

The following two decades would see three additional symphonies, each with its own distinctive style. The story of this First Symphony is the story of a patient and meticulous man, searching for and finding his own voice.

LISTEN FOR

• The “short-short-short-long” rhythmic pattern that permeates the first movement of the Symphony— homage to the famed motif that appears in the first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony
• The gorgeous melody played by the horn, oboe, and solo violin that concludes the second movement
• A solo from the clarinet— a favorite instrument of Brahms—which begins the third movement
• The heroic horn solo ringing after the dark, stormy introduction of the final movement, inspired by two mountain horns he heard while on a trip to the Alps

INSTRUMENTATION

Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, strings