Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra / Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3 – Hamburg International Music Festival
Gardiner’s birthday present
All four of them! Over the course of a two-day guest performance, Sir John Eliot Gardiner honours the symphonies of Johannes Brahms on two separate evenings. Just a few days after the 80th birthday of the conductor, who has a reputation for gripping and historically informed interpretations, this is marvellous gift for the Hamburg audience. He conducts the Amsterdam-based Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, consistently ranked among the top three orchestras in the world.
On Sunday evening, the programme includes the Hamburg-born composer’s First and Third Symphonies. Brahms wrestled with the final version of his »Symphony No. 1« over a period of years in which he was plagued by self-doubt, until finally premiering it to the public at the age of 46. Meanwhile, the symphonic storms of his »Symphony No. 3« – about whose genesis hardly anything is known – happily dissipate into an almost meditative ending.
Performers
Royal Concertgebow Orchestra
conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Programme
Johannes Brahms
Sinfonie Nr. 3 F-Dur op. 90
– Interval –
Johannes Brahms
Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68
Festival
Hamburg International Music Festival
Spotlight
Sir John Eliot Gardiner