Brahms's Symphony No. 4

John Eliot Gardiner conducts, Stephen Hough plays Piano Concerto No. 2

image: Eduardus Lee

Conductor John Eliot Gardiner is pairing Brahms’s masterly Fourth Symphony to the Second Piano Concerto featuring Stephen Hough. 

In his intensely melancholic Fourth Symphony, Brahms’s mastery as a composer reaches unprecedented heights. 

Concert programme

  • Johannes Brahms

    Piano Concerto No. 2

  • -- interval --

  • Johannes Brahms

    Symphony No. 4

Performers

About this concert

John Eliot Gardiner conducts the Fourth Symphony, in which Brahms’s art as a composer reaches unprecedented heights. Filled to the brim with references to Beethoven and other composers, Brahms’s final symphony concludes with a masterful theme with variations in which he makes a deep bow before Johann Sebastian Bach. 

Brahms shares his reverence of Bach with the conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner, who wrote a book about the baroque master. In addition, the British conductor runs an organic farm alongside multiple orchestras. Stephen Hough, too, has multiple talents. The world-renowned pianist is also a painter, composer, novelist and an award-winning poet. Even Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto has multiple identities. It has the length and structure of a full-scale symphony, but is equally a solid virtuoso work. The intimate third movement also has chamber music elements. There’s certainly a lot to enjoy here. 

Dates and tickets

About this concert

John Eliot Gardiner conducts the Fourth Symphony, in which Brahms’s art as a composer reaches unprecedented heights. Filled to the brim with references to Beethoven and other composers, Brahms’s final symphony concludes with a masterful theme with variations in which he makes a deep bow before Johann Sebastian Bach. 

Brahms shares his reverence of Bach with the conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner, who wrote a book about the baroque master. In addition, the British conductor runs an organic farm alongside multiple orchestras. Stephen Hough, too, has multiple talents. The world-renowned pianist is also a painter, composer, novelist and an award-winning poet. Even Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto has multiple identities. It has the length and structure of a full-scale symphony, but is equally a solid virtuoso work. The intimate third movement also has chamber music elements. There’s certainly a lot to enjoy here. 

A preview