Brahms up and down

Synopsis

There’s something in the way the human mind works that likes to see things in contrasting pairs: right and left, up and down, ying and yang, major and minor, happy and sad. That’s certainly the way the mind of the German composer Johannes Brahms worked, and there’s a number of examples in his music of works that emerged from his pen in contrasting pairs. The most famous example is his two contrasting concert overtures: the comic and upbeat “Academic Festival Overture,” and the dark, stoic pessimism of his “Tragic Overture.”

While composing the jaunty Academic Festival Overture in 1880, to acknowledge an Honorary Doctorate he had received the previous year from the University of Breslau, Brahms felt compelled to write a more serious companion piece. To his friend the publisher Simrock, he wrote: "I could not refuse my melancholy nature the satisfaction of composing an overture for a tragedy," To another friend, Carl Reinecke, he wrote, "One weeps, the other laughs."

Hans Richter conducted the premiere of the “Tragic” Overture in Vienna on today’s date in 1880, and the following month Brahms himself led the premiere of his “Academic Festival” Overture in Breslau. And the new works soon came to the New World: On November 12, 1881, the enterprising Theodore Thomas conducted the New York Philharmonic in the American premiere of the “Tragic” Overture, and one week later, with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, he conducted the “Academic Festival” Overture as well.

Music Played in Today's Program

Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 New York Philharmonic; Kurt Masur, cond. Teldec 77291

Johannes Brahms Tragic Overture, Op. 81 Vienna Symphony; Wolfgang Sawallisch, cond. Philips 438 760

On This Day

Births

• 1687 - German violinist and composer and violinist Johann Georg Pisendel, in Cadolzburg;

• 1926 - American trumpeter and composer Earle Brown, in Lunenburg, Ma.;

Premieres

• 1709 - Handel: opera "Agrippina" in Venice at the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo;

• 1723 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 40 ("Darzu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes") and "Magnificat" in E-flat, (S. 243a) performed on the 2nd Day of Christmas as part of Bach's first annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1723/24);

• 1724 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 121 ("Christum wir colleen loben schon") performed on the 2nd Day of Christmas as part of Bach's second annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1724/25);

• 1725 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 57 ("Selig ist der Mann") performed in Leipzig on the 2nd Day of Christmas as part of Bach's third annual Sacred Cantata cycle(1725/27);

• 1734 - Bach: Part 2 ("Und es waren Hirten in derselben Gegen") of the 6-part "Christmas Oratorio," S. 248, in Leipzig;

• 1767 - Gluck: opera, "Alceste" (1st version) in Vienna at the Imperial Court Theater;

• 1770 - Mozart: opera, "Mitridate, Re di Ponto," (composed at age 14) in Milan, at the Teatro Regio Ducale;

• 1772 - Mozart: opera, "Lucio Silla," (composed at age 16) in Milan, at the Teatro Regio Ducale;

• 1827 - Schubert: Piano Trio in Eb, Op. 100 (D. 929), at the Music Society Hall in Vienna, by Ignaz Schuppanzigh (violin), Josef Linke (cello), and Carl Maria von Bocklet (piano);

• 1830 - Donizetti: opera, "Anna Bolena," at the Teatro Carcano, Milan;

• 1831 - Bellini: opera, "Norma," in Milan the Teatro alla Scala;

• 1833 - Donizetti: opera "Lucretia Borgia," in Milan;

• 1867 - Bizet: "La jolie fille de Perth," at the Théatre-Lyrique in Paris;

• 1880 - Brahms: "Tragic Overture," Op. 81, in Vienna;

• 1897 - Rimsky-Korsakov: "Sadko," in Moscow (Gregorian date: Jan. 7);

• 1926 - Sibelius: tone-poem "Tapiola" by the New York Symphony, Walter Damrosch conducting;

• 1931 - Gershwin: musical "Of Thee I Sing," at the Music Box Theater in New York City; This show includes the classic Gershwin songs "Love is Sweeping the Country," "Of Thee I Sing," and "Who Cares?" (see also Dec. 8 for Boston trial run premiere);

• 1941 - Robert Russell Bennett: Violin Concerto, on an NBC Symphony broadcast;

Others

• 1936 - First concert of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra in Tel Aviv, with Arturo Toscanini conducting;