JOHANNES BRAHMS
b. May 7, 1833, Hamburg, Germany
d. April 3, 1897, Vienna, Austria
Symphony no. 2 in D Major, Opus 73
- Allegro non troppo (16')
- Adagio non troppo – L’istesso tempo, ma grazioso (10’)
- Allegretto grazioso (Quasi Andantino) – Presto ma non assai – Tempo I (6’)
- Allegro con spirit (9’)
Last performed by the Wichita Symphony on March 15 and 16, 2008, with Grant Cooper conducting.
Like many other composers, Brahms valued his summer vacations as a time when he could accomplish his serious composing away from the hectic schedules of the concert season. The summer of 1877 found Brahms vacationing in his first of three summers at Pörtschach on Lake Wörth in the southern Austria state of Carinthia. Aside from his ability to take a daily swim in the lake's pristine waters, Brahms wrote that it was an area where "so many melodies fly about here that one must be careful not to tread on them." With that as inspiration, Brahms set to work writing his melodious and most accessible Second Symphony.
When it came to writing symphonies, Brahms was said to be haunted by the ghost of Beethoven. He was 43 before he completed his first symphony in 1876 after working on it for fifteen years. The influence of Beethoven was so prevalent in this work that some critics dubbed it "Beethoven's Tenth." However, once Brahms had made his symphonic breakthrough, he completed the Second Symphony in four months.
Compared to the First Symphony, the Second is more pastoral and sunnier. Despite the work's success, some critics were disappointed that the symphony lacked the epic scope of the First. The writer Richard Specht went so far as to describe the work as a "serenade," implying that it lacked symphonic dimensions. Others saw an analogy in the relationship of Brahms 2nd to his 1st symphony that closely paralleled Beethoven's 6th Symphony, the "Pastoral," that followed his 5th Symphony. But these first impressions merely scraped the surface of the work's far more complex and elegiac nature.
On the surface, the Second Symphony marks a return to a more youthful style and optimistic view of life. It also possesses an awareness that the past is not obtainable, recognition of life's mortality, and the relentless march of time. By his admission, Brahms was a melancholic individual who wrote of "black wings constantly flapping above us." In his music, this translates into a mix of major and minor modes and occasionally Phrygian (a minor-like scale from E to E on the white keys of a piano). There are also rhythmic and metrical ambiguities that often seem to deny the presence of a bar line. Try tapping your foot to a three-beat pattern in the first movement and wait for the disruptions!
Another characteristic that bears notice is Brahms's orchestration. Except for the addition of a tuba, the orchestration is identical to Beethoven and other early Romantics. The winds are "in two," meaning two each of flutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons. Prominent solos and massed choirs for wind instruments contrast the strings and help delineate the contrapuntal writing. The brass section consists of four horn parts, two trumpets, three trombones, and a tuba. Brahms uses timpani but no other percussion. Brahms utilizes the usual 19th-century string section and writes for it with a lushness of sound. Note the beautiful and extended cello melody that opens the second movement. It's a standard requirement on all auditions for cellists to gain acceptance into an orchestra.
The brass section receives special treatment. Brahms never used his brass like Bruckner or Wagner. In that respect, he was conservative and even regressive. The trumpets are used mostly for accents of color. Except for the occasional foray into an extended melody, his horn writing hasn't changed much from Beethoven and the early Romantics. The low brass instruments stand out. The tuba adds depth to the trombones, and this is the only symphony where Brahms adds the instrument to his color palette. The trombones, which Brahms saves for the fourth movement in his First Symphony, appear early here and add solemnity to the opening movement. The low tones have the effect of casting shadows on the generally idyllic mood of the work. Compare the opening movement's brass to the brilliance we hear in the finale when the trombones shift into their upper range and are abetted by the trumpets, particularly as the work reaches its spine-tingling conclusion.
The Second is an immensely melodic symphony. Like Beethoven, Brahms' compositions possess a quality of inevitability in which there are no wasted notes. Each one flows from its predecessor as if no other note would do. It appears that Brahms successfully captured the abundance of melodies that he found in the environment of Lake Worth. Listen closely, and you might even hear a reference to the familiar "Brahms Lullaby" in the first movement.
Also revealing of Beethoven's influence is Brahms' economy of means in the construction of his symphony. The first movement, and indeed, the entire symphony, springs forth from the opening three motives: a four-note snippet in the low strings, the following statement heard in the horns outlining triadic material, and an answering motive in the winds that features scale material. Through the process of development, sometimes called "motivic play," Brahms expands on these ideas through compositional methods such as sequencing (repeating the pattern beginning on different notes), inversion (turning an idea "upside down," augmentation (lengthening), and diminution (shortening). Brahms's treatment of details rewards careful listening. A listener unaccustomed to following the intricacies of composition might do well to listen to how the opening three notes of the first motive are used in patterns to propel the first movement forward.
The second movement begins with a beautiful theme in the cellos. The music has an ebb and flow that moves between moments of serenity and contrasting sections of greater activity. Inspired harmonic and rhythmic ambiguities keep us off balance and achieve tension and resolution.
The third movement is a quasi-scherzo with lyrical grace reminiscent of Schubert's Ländler, a gentle dance predecessor to the Viennese waltz. Two presto sections featuring plucked strings and the woodwind choir contrast the lilting first section.
The finale is in sonata-allegro form and uses material from the earlier movements. The music swirls in a breathless quality and concludes in a blaze of glory. But for all its extroverted qualities, one suspects all is not as it seems. Some writers have found music's happiness forced and "almost violently brilliant." Jan Swafford writes, "the finale is like Brahms on a Prater merry-go-round, or laughing and drinking with friends in a café. He threw himself into the gaiety, but it was mostly for show." Brahms was a complex individual. The shadows that followed him would only deepen in the last decades of his life.
The Vienna Philharmonic, with Hans Richter conducting, premiered the Second Symphony on December 30, 1877.
Notes by Don Reinhold, CEO, Wichita Symphony, rev, 2021.
