Start time 5 May concert altered to 7.00 p.m.
Brahms NOS. 2 and 4
Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducting
Sir John Eliot Gardiner places Brahms’s symphonies in a long tradition.
Order this concert together with the concert on 3 May as Brahms cycle and receive a 20% discount.
The finale of Brahms’s Fourth is a glowing series of symphonic variations in the spirit of Bach.
Concert programme
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Johannes Brahms
Symphony No. 2
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-- interval --
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Johannes Brahms
Symphony No. 4
Performers
About this concert
Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Concertgebouw Orchestra conclude their Brahms cycle in grandiose fashion with all four symphonies spread over two evenings - in Amsterdam, Hamburg and Luxembourg. John Eliot Gardiner first made a name for himself as a conductor of Baroque music performed on historical instruments. But the vision he developed would soon extend far beyond music of the eighteenth century. Thus, he became a ‘specialist all-rounder’ - which makes him just the man for Brahms’s symphonies.
It is always clear in Brahms’s music, no matter how romantic, that he is following in a long tradition. His scintillating Second Symphony, for instance, is unmistakably reminiscent of Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’. But just listen to the finale of Brahms’s Fourth – a glowing series of symphonic variations. This is pure Brahms, yet in the strictly Baroque form of the passacaglia, in the style of Bach – unsurprisingly, Gardiner’s first and undying love. This music truly transcends the centuries.
Dates and tickets
About this concert
Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Concertgebouw Orchestra conclude their Brahms cycle in grandiose fashion with all four symphonies spread over two evenings - in Amsterdam, Hamburg and Luxembourg. John Eliot Gardiner first made a name for himself as a conductor of Baroque music performed on historical instruments. But the vision he developed would soon extend far beyond music of the eighteenth century. Thus, he became a ‘specialist all-rounder’ - which makes him just the man for Brahms’s symphonies.
It is always clear in Brahms’s music, no matter how romantic, that he is following in a long tradition. His scintillating Second Symphony, for instance, is unmistakably reminiscent of Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’. But just listen to the finale of Brahms’s Fourth – a glowing series of symphonic variations. This is pure Brahms, yet in the strictly Baroque form of the passacaglia, in the style of Bach – unsurprisingly, Gardiner’s first and undying love. This music truly transcends the centuries.