Sonic Asymmetry

Johannes Brahms – “Symphony 4 in E Minor”

ヨハネス・ブラームス – 「交響曲4 in Eマイナー」

TIME COMMITMENT: 45 minutes

The unmistakable allegretto opening inebriates us with its festive, reckless triumphalism.  The swirling orchestral architecture then carries us forward, but it’s the 4th movement – with its obsessive bass figures of a baroque-like passacaglia – that makes the last 12 minutes memorable.  Overshadowed by Mahler’s formal breakthroughs, Brahms was often accused of conservatism (or mis-timed revivalism?) yet remained influential among later modernists.  Leonard Bernstein’s commentary in the second video is an absolute delight.

MUSIC

INFO

A REFLECTION

Flying past the wind and wave

Fleeing time, who will stop it?

You enjoy it in the moment

And off, running, in haste, now

Johann Gottfried von Herder: “Song of Life”