Y. Nézet-Séguin: Brahms Cycle II
Beatrice Rana, Piano
Hidden behind Schumann's Piano Concerto is a love story. The work’s main melody represents Schumann's wife Clara. And quite literally: in the Schumann home, Clara was called "Chiara" in Italian. If we take out the letters unrelated to music (“i” and “r”), c, h (German for b), a, and a remain: the first four notes of the main melody that shapes the course the whole piece. Incidentally, Johannes Brahms also dedicated a melody to Clara, in the fourth movement of his First Symphony, which will be performed in the Brahms Cycle I. Today we will hear the Symphony No. 2, a musical pastorale which the composer completed in Baden-Baden, where the work was long referred to as the “Lichtental Symphony."
Program
Robert Schumann
Piano Concerto in A minor, op. 54
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Johannes Brahms
Symphony No. 2 in D major, op. 73
Estimated end time: 6:50 PM