Brahms Zyklus 1

In the organizer's words:

Johannes Brahms
Symphony No. 1 in C minor op. 68
Symphony No. 2 in D major op. 73

The four symphonies by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) are among the centerpieces of all great conductors and orchestras. So rich is their expressive power, so varied are the creative possibilities that these works open up, that it is always an adventure to go on a voyage of discovery through their scores. In the two special concerts of his first season with the Dortmund Philharmonic, Jordan de Souza will bring his Brahms to our ears - with the complete cycle on two consecutive evenings.

Brahms captivated audiences surprisingly quickly with his symphonies, even during his lifetime. Above all, he immediately struck a chord with the times with the deep emotions "expressed" in his music. The progressive currents that still characterized Beethoven had largely ebbed away. Brahms and his followers increasingly sought their happiness in inwardness, in the love of nature and in the heavenly realms of religion.

However, the path to the symphony was not an easy one for Brahms. He had received tremendous advance praise from Robert Schumann, his great mentor, which burdened him more than it benefited him: his sonatas were "veiled symphonies", Schumann wrote in 1853 about the piano works of Johannes Brahms, who was just 20 years old. Robert's wife Clara confided in her diary at the time: "Once again, this is someone [Brahms] who comes as if specially sent by God." Thus heralded as the Messiah, Brahms carried a heavy burden with him.

And a further shadow lay on his soul: Beethoven's symphonies had impressed the younger composers so much that many felt almost blocked from continuing the genre. At the beginning of the 1870s, when Brahms was almost 40 years old, he wrote to the conductor Hermann Levi: "I will never compose a symphony. You have no idea how we feel when we always hear such a giant [meaning Beethoven] marching behind us." However, this statement must be qualified. Because secretly he was constantly working on the big project.