The Classical Music Book

188

HE ... COMES AS

IF SENT STRAIGHT

FROM GOD

SYMPHONY NO. 1 ( 1876 ),

JOHANNES BRAHMS

I

n the first decades of the

19th century, Beethoven took

the symphony to new heights,

making it the most important

genre in the Austro-German

tradition. In the wake of his death,

a handful of composers stepped

in to assume Beethoven’s mantle.

Among them was German

composer Johannes Brahms, who

deplored program music—music

that sought to follow or describe

a narrative line—and openly

criticized the New German School

represented by Richard Wagner and

Franz Liszt. Brahms believed in

producing “pure” music, which was

abstract, rather than associated

with a plot line.

In 1853, Brahms met Robert

Schumann and his pianist wife,

Clara. Schumann, who was the

composer of four symphonies,

hailed Brahms as the great hope

Brahms and Adele Strauss, wife

of Johann Strauss II, sit down to

breakfast in his villa in the summer

of 1894. Brahms often visited their

villa in Bad Ischl, Austria.

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Fall and rise of

the symphony

BEFORE

1824 Beethoven completes

his Symphony No. 9.

1853 Robert Schumann hails

Brahms as the hope of German

music in an influential essay,

Neue Bahnen (“New Paths”).

1858 Brahms completes his

First Piano Concerto, which

at one point was conceived

as a symphony, and his

First Serenade.

AFTER

1877 In a review, the

conductor Hans von Bülow

hails Brahms’s First Symphony

as “Beethoven’s 10th.”

1889 Mahler conducts the

premiere of his Symphony

No. 1 in Budapest, the first of

his nine completed symphonies.

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