Wiener Symphoniker | Heras-Casado

Johannes Brahms only wrote four symphonies. Yet these works add up to one of the most important cycles in the history of this classical form, which the composer struggled over for a long time. He felt the shadow of Beethoven and tried for a long time to free himself from it. He even went further back in terms of great models: “Since Haydn, a symphony is no longer just fun, but a matter of life and death,” he wrote. With his monumental “First,” he found his own profile, although it has been called “Beethoven’s Tenth.” But the typical “Brahms sound” is unmistakable, despite all the appropriations. Brahms created panoramas of absolute music in which tradition and progress shake hands. He was a genius of variation, but a romantic at heart, so tonal poetry and the reflections of experienced nature are not neglected. This especially distinguishes the pastoral “Second.” The Wiener Symphoniker has the music of the Viennese by choice in its blood.