Pörtschach-am-See, a picturesque place in Lower Austria, on the
Wörthersee, near the Italian frontier, appealed to Brahms as ideal for a
summer holiday. To Hanslick he once wrote that the air at Portschach was
so charged with melodies that he must "be careful not to tread on them."
There he began the D major symphony and composed (in 1878) the violin
concerto (also in D major).
And even now, with his characteristic modesty and still uncertain about
the value of his own work, he could say in a letter to Elisabeth von
Herzogenberg, the day announced for the first performance of the violin
concerto being only a fortnight away: "Joachim is coming here and I
shall have a chance to try the concerto through with him and so to
decide for or against a public performance."
Hanslick once quite justly called this concerto "the ripe fruit of the
friendship between Joachim and Brahms." For Joachim it was written and
to him it stands dedicated. He, furthermore, was the soloist when at a
Gewandhaus Concert in Leipzig, on January 1, 1879, it was given to the
world. A local reviewer, on good terms with both the composer and the
violinist, remarked after the first performance that only too evidently
Joachim found the solo part extremely difficult.
The influence of Joachim on the concerto must have been considerable,
for Brahms often consulted him with regard to the practicability of this
or that passage, and he supplied not only a cadenza but the fingering
and the indications for bowing as well. Subsequently Joachim went still
further. After he had played the concerto a number of times in public,
he advised Brahms to make alterations in the score that he thought were
required, and Brahms consented to the alterations before the concerto
was published in October, 1879. To Brahms Joachim wrote from London,
where he had performed the work twice with the Philharmonic Society:
"With these exceptions the piece, especially the first movement, pleases
me more and more. The last two times I played without notes. That a solo
composition has been performed at two London Philharmonic Concerts in
succession has happened in the history of the society only once, when
Mendelssohn played his G minor piano concerto (manuscript)."
It has been pointed out that Brahms's biographers disagree about the
reception accorded the violin concerto at the première. Florence May
quotes Dörffel, critic of the Leipziger Nachrichten, as follows:
"Joachim played with a love and devotion which brought home to us in
every measure the direct or indirect share he has had in the work. As to
the reception, the first movement was too new to be distinctly
appreciated by the audience, the second made considerable way, the last
aroused great enthusiasm."
Max Kalbeck, a devotee of Brahms, declares: "The work was heard
respectfully, but it did not awaken a particle of enthusiasm. It seemed
that Joachim had not sufficiently studied the concerto or he was
severely indisposed. Brahms conducted with visible excitement."
J. A. Fuller-Maitland emphasizes Brahms's going back to the tradition of
the older concerto form in giving a long exposition of the material of
the first movement before the entry of the solo instrument. "When the
violin does come in, it is with a kind of breathless passage, on which
there was some discussion between the composer and Joachim.
"We cannot fail to trace in the passages for solo the special points in
which Joachim was without a rival, such as the handling of several parts
and other things. The absence of the slightest trace of passages written
for mere effect is as characteristic of the player as of the composer;
and, like the other concertos, the work for violin is to be judged first
and foremost as a composition, not as a means of display.
"Occasionally it may have happened that in the desire to avoid the
meretricious Brahms allowed himself to make the violin part so harsh as
almost to repel the general public at first; even in the short time
since the death of Joachim, who was, of course, unrivalled in it, the
work has come increasingly into favor with violinists, and nowadays even
the prodigies are bold enough to attempt it."
The first movement of the concerto (Allegro non troppo, D major, 3-4)
has a chief subject of idyllic nature, announced by violas, 'cellos,
bassoons, and horns. The peak of the movement comes with the merging of
the cadenza into the return of the first subject.
The second movement (Adagio, F major, 2-4) has been compared to a
serenade or a romanza. The principal melody is sung first by an oboe,
then in altered form by the solo violin,
[Illustration: play music]
which also introduces an emotional and highly ornamented second theme.
After extended development the original melody comes back in the solo
instrument.
The finale (Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace, D major, 2-4) is a
rondo on three themes, demanding brilliant execution from the soloist.
Compact in its formal body, the movement ends in an elaborate coda.
Fuller-Maitland points out the Hungarian flavor of this finale, "as if a
dedication to the great Hungarian violinist were conveyed in it."
"Academic Festival Overture," Op. 80
According to a plaque on the outer wall of a house at Ischl in Upper
Austria, "the great tone poet Dr. Johannes Brahms" occupied the house
for twelve summers. Indeed, Brahms had a marked fondness for Ischl. In
spite of the fact that it was one of the most fashionable of spas and
that he disliked fashionable life, his attachment to the town persisted,
and in the aforesaid house, in the summer of 1880, he composed two
overtures, the "Tragic" and the "Academic Festival." Notwithstanding the
opus numbers, the "Tragic" was composed first and also performed first.
The origin of the "Academic Festival Overture" is explained by its name.
The University of Breslau, on May 11, 1879, conferred on Brahms an
honorary doctor's degree. Though not a university man, Brahms had had a
taste of university life in 1853 when, with Remenyi, he had paid a visit
to Joachim, who was then at Göttingen, the university bitingly satirized
by Heine. There, during his stay of several weeks, he became familiar
with the songs best liked by the students. Nearly three decades later
the songs were present in his memory ready for use in an overture
intended as the composer's tribute to the university honoring him.
Brahms himself conducted the first performance of the "Academic Festival
Overture" on January 4, 1881, at Breslau, before an audience that
included in the front seats the Rector and Senate of the University and
members of the Philosophical Faculty. The honorary Doctor of Philosophy,
so often mystifying and coy about a new composition, described the
overture to Max Kalbeck, in the autumn of 1880, as a "very jolly
potpourri on students' songs à la Suppé." When Kalbeck, a bit sarcastic,
inquired whether he had used the "Fox Song" (a freshman song), he
replied eagerly, "Yes, indeed!" Kalbeck, taken aback, declared that he
could not think of such academic homage to the "leathery Herr Rektor."
"That is also wholly unnecessary," answered Brahms.
Minus an introduction, the overture (Allegro, C minor, 2-2) begins
immediately with the principal subject given out softly by the first
violins. A quieter section follows, the melody in the violas. The first
of the students' songs, "Wir hatten gebauet ein stättliches Haus" ("We
had built a stately house, and trusted in God therein through bad
weather, storm, and horror"), is impressively intoned by the three
trumpets (C major, 4-4).
The second students' song, "Der Landesvater" ("The Father of the
Country"), appears in E major in the second violins. The mood changes
now to one of frank jollity with the ragging of the freshman. The "Fox
Song," "Was kommt dort von der Höh" ("What Comes There From On High"),
is introduced in G major by the two bassoons to an accompaniment of
violas and 'cellos. The fourth and last students' song, "Gaudeamus
Igitur," famous wherever there are students the world over, (Maestoso, C
major, 3-4), is proclaimed by all the wind against rushing scales in the
upper strings, ending the overture brilliantly.
"Tragic Overture," Op. 81
Although the "Tragic Overture" had a place on the program of the concert
in Breslau at which Brahms, conducting, brought out the "Academic
Festival Overture", the "Tragic" had already been played in Vienna at a
Philharmonic Concert on December 20, 1880, under the direction of Hans
Richter.
There has long been discussion as to what tragedy this overture sets
forth. It has been called "a tragedy not of actual happenings but of
soul life. No hero, no event, suggested program music or any specific
musical portrayal, although Hanslick says that if it be necessary to
associate the overture with a particular tragedy, that tragedy is
'Hamlet'." The Hamletians identify the second theme, in F, with Ophelia
and the episode in B-flat with Fortinbras.
It has also been said that though the composer denied that in writing
this work he had any specific tragedy in mind, he may have received the
impulse from a production of Goethe's "Faust" given by Franz von
Dingelstedt in 1876 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, especially since
Dingelstedt had asked Brahms to consider supplying incidental music and
Brahms, it is said, had consented. To some, then, this is a Faust
overture.
Perhaps it is best to allow the overture to stand by itself untroubled
by the hazards of literary identification. Heinrich Reimann finds in it
the grandeur, the loftiness, the deep earnestness of tragic character,
"Calamities, which an inexorable fate had imposed on him, leave the hero
guilty; the tragic downfall atones for the guilt; this downfall, which
by purifying the passions and awakening fear and pity works on the race
at large, brings expiation and redemption to the hero himself."
Another biographer of Brahms, Dr. Hermann Deiters, sums up the essence
as follows: "In this work we see a strong hero battling with an iron and
relentless fate; passing hopes of victory cannot alter an impending
destiny. We do not care to inquire whether the composer has a special
tragedy in his mind, or if so, which one; those who remain musically
unconvinced by the unsurpassably powerful theme would not be assisted by
a particular suggestion."
The overture opens (Allegro ma non troppo, D minor, 2-2) with two
fortissimo chords, after which the strings give out the first theme. The
quieter second theme is uttered by the violins. A more moderate section,
in part new and in part derived from earlier material, suggested to
Grove a funeral march.