Johannes Brahms' Symphony No. 1 in C minor op. 68 was played by the WDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by its then principal conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste at the Cologne Philharmonie on 9 March 2012.
Historical recording from the WDR Klassik-Archiv.
00:00:00 I. Un poco sostenuto Ð Allegro
00:12:59 II. Andante sostenuto
00:21:31 III. un poco Allegretto e grazioso
00:26:19 IV. Adagio Ð Allegro non troppo, ma con brio
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○ Introduction to the work:
Johannes Brahms was a late bloomer when it came to symphony: he took his time with his first symphonic work until the age of 43. For him, composing a symphony was a "matter of life and death". For Beethoven's nine symphonies had helped the genre to such a high rank and standard that in the 19th century it was considered the highest goal of composing. This overpowering shadow of Beethoven weighed heavily on all subsequent composers. For Brahms, the situation was further complicated by the fact that in 1853 Robert Schumann had announced the barely 20 year old as the new musical "Messiah". This advance praise both inspired and paralyzed Brahms. All subsequent attempts to confront the symphonic genre were accompanied by self-doubt. Thus, piece by piece, he approached the prestigious symphony by writing serenades, chamber music, and music for choir and orchestra. Finally, after more than 20 years of preparation, his 1st Symphony was finally premiered in Karlsruhe on November 4, 1876.
Following the classical tradition, Brahms developed his own creative means. These include, above all, the principle of developing variation, i.e. deriving all important motifs and themes from a core idea. While Beethoven had already laid the foundation for this, Brahms goes much further and covers all parts of the movement with a dense fabric of motivic-thematic relationships. The First Symphony begins with an extended introduction, in which the thematic material of the following movements is heard, including the violins' melody, which spirals up chromatically and seems like a desperate rebellion against an overpowering fate. Brahms unfolds an unheard-of tension here, as he lets the strings fight against the persistently hammering timpani (organ point on c). After two less dramatic middle movements, Brahms brings an alphorn theme and a march theme in the symphony's finale, which is said to resemble Beethoven's "Joy" hymn from the 9th Symphony. According to Brahms, no wonder, since "every donkey hears the same! So a deliberate homage to Beethoven? For the renowned conductor Hans von Bülow, at any rate, this symphony by Brahms was "Beethoven's Tenth".
(Text: Tilla Clüsserath)