I. Allegro con brio
II. Andante
III. Poco allegretto
IV. Allegro
Some justly prefer the Symphony in F major to the other three. It has no
pages equal in imagination to the wonderful introduction to the _finale_
of the First; it has nothing in it like the architectural grandeur of
the Fourth’s _finale_; but, as a whole, it is the most poetic of the
four. Brahms wrote nothing more commanding than the opening of the first
movement. Page after page thereafter might be cited in praise. And in
this symphony the natural austerity of the composer is mellowed, his
melancholy, as in the third movement, is tender, wistful, not
pessimistic.
* * *
Brahms worked on his Third symphony in 1882, and in the summer of 1883
he completed it.
The first performance of the Third symphony was at a Philharmonic
concert in Vienna, December 2, 1883. Hans Richter conducted. Brahms
feared for the performance, although Richter had conducted four
rehearsals. He wrote to Bülow that at these rehearsals he missed the
Forum Romanum (the theater scene which in Meiningen served as a concert
hall for rehearsals), and would not be wholly comfortable until the
public gave unqualified approval. Max Kalbeck states that at the first
performance in Vienna a crowd of the Wagner-Bruckner _ecclesia militans_
stood in the pit to make a hostile demonstration, and there was hissing
after the applause following each movement had died away; but the
general public was so appreciative that the hissing was drowned and
enthusiasm was at its height. Arthur Faber came near fighting a duel
with an inciter of the _Skandal_ sitting behind him, but forgot the
disagreeable incident at the supper given by him in honor of the
production of the symphony, with Dr. Billroth, Simrock, Goldmark,
Dvořák, Brüll, Hellmesberger, Richter, Hanslick, among the guests. At
this concert Franz Ondricek played the new violin concerto of Dvořák.
It is said that various periodicals asserted that this symphony was by
far the best of Brahms’ compositions. This greatly annoyed the composer,
especially as it raised expectations which he thought could not be
fulfilled. Brahms sent the manuscript to Joachim in Berlin and asked him
to conduct the second performance where or at what time he liked. For a
year or more the friendship between the two had been clouded, for Brahms
had sided with Mrs. Joachim in the domestic dispute, or at least he had
preserved his accustomed intimacy with her, and Joachim had resented
this. The second performance, led by Joachim, was at Berlin, January 4,
1884. Dr. Franz Wüllner was then the conductor of the Berlin
Philharmonic Orchestra Subscription Concerts. Brahms had promised him in
the summer before the honor of conducting this symphony in Berlin for
the first time. Joachim insisted that he should be the conductor.
Churlish in the matter, he persuaded Brahms to break his promise to
Wüllner by saying that he would play Brahms’ violin concerto under the
composer’s direction if Brahms would allow him to conduct the symphony.
Brahms then begged Wüllner to make the sacrifice. Joachim therefore
conducted it at an Academy Concert, but Brahms was not present; he came
about a fortnight later to Wüllner’s first subscription concert, and
then conducted the symphony and played his pianoforte concerto in D
minor. The writer of these notes was at this concert. The symphony was
applauded enthusiastically, but Brahms was almost as incompetent a
conductor as Joachim. (His pianoforte playing in 1884 on that occasion
was muddy and noisy.) Brahms conducted the symphony at Wiesbaden on
January 18, 1884. The copyright of the manuscript was sold to the
publisher Simrock, of Berlin, for 36,000 marks ($9,000) and a percentage
on sums realized by performances.
Hans Richter in a toast christened this symphony when it was still in
manuscript, the “_Eroica_.” Hanslick remarked concerning this: “Truly,
if Brahms’ First symphony in C minor is characterized as the
‘_Pathetic_’ or the ‘_Appassionata_’ and the second in D major as the
‘_Pastoral_,’ the new symphony in F major may be appropriately called
his ‘_Eroica_’”; yet Hanslick took care to add that the key word was not
wholly to the point, for only the first movement and the _finale_ are of
heroic character. This Third symphony, he says, is indeed a new one. “It
repeats neither the poignant song of Fate of the first, nor the joyful
Idyl of the second; its fundamental note is proud strength that rejoices
in deeds. The heroic element is without any warlike flavor; it leads to
no tragic action, such as the Funeral March in Beethoven’s _Eroica_. It
recalls in its musical character the healthy and full vigor of
Beethoven’s second period, and nowhere the singularities of his last
period; and every now and then in passages quivers the romantic twilight
of Schumann and Mendelssohn.”
Max Kalbeck thinks that the statue of Germania near Rüdesheim inspired
Brahms to write this symphony.[19] Joachim found Hero and Leander in the
_finale_! He associated the second motive in C major with the bold
swimmer breasting the waves. Clara Schumann entitled the symphony a
“Forest Idyl” and sketched a programme for it.
The first movement, _allegro con brio_, in F major, 6-4, opens with
three introductory chords (horns, trumpets, wood-wind), the upper voice
of which, F, A flat, F, presents a short theme that is an emblematic
figure, or device, which recurs significantly throughout the movement.
Although it is not one of the regular themes, it plays a dominating
part. Some find in a following cross-relation—A flat of the bass against
the preceding A natural of the first theme, the “Keynote to some occult
dramatic signification.” Enharmonic modulation leads to A major, the
tonality of the second theme. There is first a slight reminiscence of
the “Venusberg” scene in _Tannhäuser_—“_Naht euch dem Strande!_” Dr.
Hugo Riemann goes so far as to say that Brahms may have thus paid a
tribute to Wagner, who died in the period of the composition of this
symphony. The second theme is of a graceful character, but of compressed
form, in strong contrast with the broad and sweeping first theme. The
second movement, _andante_ in C major, 4-4, opens with a hymnlike
passage, which in the first three chords reminds some persons of the
“Prayer” in _Zampa_. The third movement is a _poco allegretto_, C minor,
3-8, a romantic substitute for the traditional _scherzo_. _Finale_,
_allegro_, in F minor, 2-2. At the end the strings in tremolo bring the
original first theme of the first movement, “the ghost” of this first
theme, as Apthorp called it, over sustained harmonies in the wind
instruments.