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Brahms · Johannes Brahms

Brahms Symphony No. 1 in C minor

Hesitating for 20 years at Beethoven's footsteps

Key
C minor
Composed
1876
Premiere
1876 Karlsruhe
Duration
About 46 min
Movements
4 movements
Instrumentation
Woodwinds 2·2·2·2 (+ contrabassoon) · Brass 4·2·3·0 (trombones in the fourth movement only) · Timpani · Strings

The story behind this piece

Brahms took a very long time to bring out his first symphony. He began sketching in the mid-1850s and only finished in 1876; Brahms himself said it took 21 years. The D-minor symphony idea he first took up ended up becoming not a symphony but his Piano Concerto No. 1.

Why did he hesitate so long? Something he said around 1872 to the conductor Hermann Levi is famous: "I'll never write a symphony! You have no idea how it feels to always hear a giant like that walking along behind me." The giant, of course, was Beethoven.

The premiere was on November 4, 1876, in Karlsruhe, conducted by his friend Otto Dessoff. Not long after, the conductor Hans von Bülow called it "Beethoven's Tenth Symphony," which gave it its nickname. When people remarked that the fourth-movement theme resembles the "Ode to Joy" in Beethoven's Ninth, Brahms bluntly replied, "Any fool can see that."

The Alpine-style melody the horn plays in the fourth movement is one Brahms wrote down in 1868 as a greeting to Clara Schumann. The big arc of this piece is the journey of a symphony that begins in dark C minor and, passing through this horn call, ends in radiant C major.

What to listen for

  • Opening of the first movement: over the timpani pounding the same note again and again, the strings and winds rise in heavy, interlocking lines. The tension is suffocating from the very start.
  • Middle of the fourth movement: when the misty introduction clears, the horn plays a long melody like an Alpine herdsman's song. Then the trombones, appearing for the first time only in the fourth movement, sound a quiet chorale.
  • Fourth-movement theme: the broad, confident C-major melody sung by the strings is the very theme said to resemble the "Ode to Joy."

Listen · Score

Credits