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Posted by Ford on January 28, 2007, 2:59 am As I was watching, I developed a little story to make sense of the symphony, which went as thus: The symphony is actually a program work about the composer's relationship with his adopted city, Vienna.
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The other night I was watching a performance of Brahms's 3rd on DVD (Baudo & the Swiss Italian, probably the only top-draw performance in the Silverline series), and I was thinking about the general feeling that the 3rd is the most difficult of Brahms's symphonies to understand. The opening of the 1st movement still sounds a little, well, odd, and the ending is unusually quiet and restrained.
The first movement is actually a pre-Ravel mad waltz, depicting the glamour and intimidating urbanity of the musical capital of the world.
The second movement explores the city with a sense of wonder, and perhaps walks in the surrounding hills, with the oboe as our protagonist.
The third movement is about loneliness - Brahms alone in a strange city, far from family and aware that he will never marry.
The fourth movement is the struggle - his creative struggle and his struggle against loneliness, resolving with the return of the 1st movement theme, the "Vienna" theme, which finds him finally at home in his new city, and content in himself.
Think what you will of my little "program"! My question is: is there a performance of this symphony available in which the Viennese waltz characteristic of the 1st movement is strongly emphasised?
Now that I have my theory, I'd love to hear it in action.
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