Münchner Philharmoniker & Zubin Mehta - Brahms: Symphony No. 3 (2024) [Hi-Res]

Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90, is a symphony by Johannes Brahms. The work was written in the summer of 1883 at Wiesbaden, nearly six years after he completed his Symphony No. 2. In the interim Brahms had written some of his greatest works, including the Violin Concerto, two overtures (Tragic Overture and Academic Festival Overture), and Piano Concerto No. 2.

The premiere performance was given on 2 December 1883 by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of Hans Richter. It is the shortest of Brahms' four symphonies; a typical performance lasts between 35 and 40 minutes.

After each performance, Brahms polished his score further, until it was published in May 1884.

‘Neue Bahnen’ was the title of an enthusiastic essay in the “Neue Zeitschrift für Musik” with which Robert Schumann introduced Johannes Brahms (born on 7 May 1833 in Hamburg) to the music world. Praised by Schumann as an innovator, Brahms was elevated against his will to the head of a conservative ‘music party’ by the influential Viennese music critic Eduard Hanslick: For Hanslick, Brahms was a guarantor of the continuation of Beethoven's tradition, which had to be defended against the ‘New Germans’ Wagner, Liszt and Bruckner. Brahms was seen as a conservative composer more because of Hanslick's appropriation than because of his compositions, an assessment that Arnold Schoenberg resolutely opposed in his essay ‘Brahms, the Progressive’. Burdened with the burden of writing something new within the symphonic genre after Beethoven, Brahms did not compose his first symphony until the age of 43. Three more followed and, alongside Bruckner's compositions, mark the most important contribution to symphonic music after Beethoven in the 19th century. However, Brahms also created groundbreaking works in the field of chamber music and choral music - where ‘Ein deutsches Requiem’ became his greatest success.

Brahms died in Vienna on 3 April 1897 and was buried in a grave of honour in Vienna's Central Cemetery.