Amazing pieces of classical music - 32
Johannes Brahms's Tragic Overture, Op. 81, is a concert overture for orchestra written during the summer of 1880. It premiered, under the baton of Hans Richter who was then the director of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, on 26th December 1880. My pick for a performance this time, however, is with a 29-year-old Lorin Maazel and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1959.
Brahms chose the title 'tragic' to emphasize the turbulent, tormented character of the piece, in essence a self-contained symphonic movement, in contrast to the mirthful ebullience of a companion piece he wrote the same year, the Academic Festival Overture. Despite its name, the Tragic Overture does not follow any specific dramatic program. Brahms summed up the effective difference in character between the two overtures when he declared "one is laughing, the other crying".
Maazel's interpretation here remains fiery and briskly paced. This 1959 performance of the piece is an electrifying and well-regarded reading, though it is not a widely reviewed recording. One review describes the performance as having an "unerringly well judged exposition of the work's form and character," with "classy playing of the orchestra, the precisely weighted chords, the natural phrasing, the superb rhythm". Another review mentions a "fiercely bright sound" from Maazel's "complete early recordings" but notes the sound quality may have some "irksome sonic instability".
Many critics (even Dave Hurwitz amongst them) dismiss these early performances in general as the almost overconfident, overly enthusiastic pronouncements of the young conductor, let alone a naive American prodigy. They forget that Brahms chose the title 'tragic', however, also to emphasize the equally youngish, but turbulent and tormented character of the piece, and in contrast to the equally fiery and joyful exuberance of the Academic Festival Overture.
All said and done, it's indeed a significant recording from a pivotal time in Maazel's career and the history of the Berliner Philharmoniker, showcasing a powerful partnership (and also pointing to tragic reality, to how even a prodigy can't truly realize full potential in the long run), and it remains wonderfully beautiful music and certainly deserves a place in Kenneth Clark's BBC tv-series Civilization, or rather, a panorama of our culture and civilization
[media=https://youtu.be/HRXeLSiY6CE]
Brahms chose the title 'tragic' to emphasize the turbulent, tormented character of the piece, in essence a self-contained symphonic movement, in contrast to the mirthful ebullience of a companion piece he wrote the same year, the Academic Festival Overture. Despite its name, the Tragic Overture does not follow any specific dramatic program. Brahms summed up the effective difference in character between the two overtures when he declared "one is laughing, the other crying".
Maazel's interpretation here remains fiery and briskly paced. This 1959 performance of the piece is an electrifying and well-regarded reading, though it is not a widely reviewed recording. One review describes the performance as having an "unerringly well judged exposition of the work's form and character," with "classy playing of the orchestra, the precisely weighted chords, the natural phrasing, the superb rhythm". Another review mentions a "fiercely bright sound" from Maazel's "complete early recordings" but notes the sound quality may have some "irksome sonic instability".
Many critics (even Dave Hurwitz amongst them) dismiss these early performances in general as the almost overconfident, overly enthusiastic pronouncements of the young conductor, let alone a naive American prodigy. They forget that Brahms chose the title 'tragic', however, also to emphasize the equally youngish, but turbulent and tormented character of the piece, and in contrast to the equally fiery and joyful exuberance of the Academic Festival Overture.
All said and done, it's indeed a significant recording from a pivotal time in Maazel's career and the history of the Berliner Philharmoniker, showcasing a powerful partnership (and also pointing to tragic reality, to how even a prodigy can't truly realize full potential in the long run), and it remains wonderfully beautiful music and certainly deserves a place in Kenneth Clark's BBC tv-series Civilization, or rather, a panorama of our culture and civilization
[media=https://youtu.be/HRXeLSiY6CE]
