Spring Symphonies, No 70 - Brahms: Symphony No 4

I’ve already written about my reluctance to put Brahms into this survey when I considered his sunny Second Symphony here. This symphony needs consideration even if it presents a grisly reminder of the Brahms problem.

This is nearly a 20th Century symphony (premiered in 1885) had it been written 15 years later I think it might have been regarded as a rather long winded way to get to it’s point. I dare say it might have been morphed into a tone poem (and lost much of it’s punch) - but Brahms didn’t do tone poems.  Nor did he conceive of much else between overture and symphony.  Like his Tragic Overture though there is much that is modern in this work.  The inner workings of the symphony and it’s deep roots into ancient modes and it’s determination to use the symphonic form build to  a tremendously ambitious piece.  On the one hand it is seen as a glorious piece, with a triumphant end and endless colour and melody but listen closely and the walls close in and the dark mood within is revealed.

I’m from the school that views this symphony is a work of intense tragedy - and if you don’t see it that way you my find the rest of this piece hard to swallow.  It is clever and daring but also draining, bitterly sad and pessimistic.  It achieves this through a series of hard headed brilliant written episodes which bit by bit confine us - my question would be do these combine to make a symphony.  My answer is that sometimes I envisage it as one and in certain hands it comes over as a bore. 

In 1885 the musical society in German and beyond were split between the proponents of Brahms - the classicist, the technician the keeper of the Beethovenian flame of worked through rhetoric to glory or something akin to triumph.  The other side of the Germany musical thinking put all their hopes for the future into Wagner’s art forms - narrative led, daring orchestration and language, a direct reflection to the human condition ending - whether through tragedy or victory to a higher enlightenment.  in the press, alligencies were drawn and two sides could scarcely contain their contempt for the other.  In the end of course, music developed out of teh synthesis of teh two and many more, influences into a flourishing tradition of quasi-symphonic orchestral works, great symphonies and more operas and other narrative led works.  What I’m concerned with here is that Brahms through his direct revival of pre-Beethovenian techniques, matched with classical symphonic form produces both a hollow victory and an higher response which goes beyond Wagner’s transcendental results to something decidedly darker, hopeless and disturbing.

It is a symphony which suffocates the romantic optimism that had pervaded music since Beethoven.  It proclaims this life we lead and love we pursue are nothing and in one sense - the ideals of a century of great music of victory and love have been for nothing.  Through the usual symphonic format and ostensibly using the language of the romantic movement - he leads us into a trap of mortality and a tragic nihilism. It is not the direct “theatrical” personal anguish we might find in Tchaikovsky’s Sixth symphony or Mahler’s Ninth, it is a calculated exposure of our position which one might find in the ambiguity of Shostakovich 8, the helpless defeat of Sibelius 4 and the nihilistic Sixth symphony of Vaughan Williams.  If only Mozart had written a great, tragic D Minor symphony - our view of the symphony would be so different.

The music begins with a sonata form first movement - highly conventional in structure and classical in it’s poise and language.  It is written for a conventional classical orchestra modest in proportions and all tree usual characteristics of Brahm’s orchestration are in play.  The material though is edgy, it seems to carry an almost clinical neutrality or possibly its just very polite.  There’s a rise and fall in the progresses through the two groups and their development.  When the opening returns it has a weight and sadness which was there all the time but is now challenged by a stridency too.  It as is though the music is hardening it’s attitude and its tone though glorious in many ways is a carefully calculated deconstruction or stripping away of the warm elements.  It leaves something rather bare and insecure.  This is to be the underlying mechanism of this symphony and thinking about it this is a major compositional achievement at a time when Tchaikovsky was wearing his broken heart on his sleeve.  The fierceness of this movement grows with a concomitant decay in the softer element, the glorious mellow tunes have vanished and the music tumbles in the coda to a angry vehemence.  The rush of blood is tremendous and Brahms’ control here is exact - the measured repose of an gentle melody has become a savage rejoinder to the listener.  Beware of false hope, or indeed any hope, this great romantic idea has all been for nothing.  In the end it all boils down to a bullying, terse end. 

There were plenty of signs of this preoccupation in the Third symphony - as Elgar noted we are skating on the edge of the abyss. I think, in comparison with the Fourth, Brahms was issuing a fatherly warning in that work.  In the 1880s in the midsts of a Indian summer of magnificent writing some of which is exquisitely spare and heart warming, we have his other world view and perhaps looking at his most emotional works this shouldn’t be a surprise. The first piano concerto, the German Requiem, songs of hope and love all show his range.  It’s a very modern mindset - and to meet it some he used some very old musical language.  Most notably in the second movement where - perhaps for the first time he creates an impactful symphonic slow movement.  He uses a distinctly ancient musical technique for the whole movement to sound markedly different.  Musical modes drawn from the time of Gregorian chant and earlier, allowed musicians and scholars to draw distinctions about different scales used in pieces.  It’s a technical topic but what we can note here is that Brahms looks backwards to create and effect  - deep seated in our musical memory - of ancient resonance and in this case solemnity.  

The form of the movement is not especially challenging two themes of great beauty - the second a heartfelt sad song on strings are played and repeated with a agitated middle section between the exposition and it’s repeat.  It is very plain in many ways - the interest arising out of the intensity of the orchestral writing and then unusual colour to the language thanks to this ancient mode.  If it seems banal then I think that’s partly the intention.  It is certainly sorrowful - Brahms was very good at getting to the heart, musically, of sadness.  This mode does lend a level of intimacy. It feels to me that this mode may cause us a subtle and dangerous moment of self-reflection at a time when we should be on our guard. The effect is subtle and I am suspicious - this movement is certainly more than it seems.

The scherzo is partly from the world of Brahms more ebullient works - the Hungarian Dances perhaps, though these were generally orchestrated by other people.  Like the Academic Festival Overture employers a triangle - uniquely in his symphonic canon. It is full of verve, elan, life and energy but it is all rather insistent, as though through clenched teeth.  It is a rather square dance-form but that’s not a first for Brahms either.  But it confirms my feeling that that this symphony exists on two levels or perhaps more appropriately two guises.  First the outward enjoyment of the brilliance of Brahms the orchestrator:  rigour of the first movement, the beauty of the second and the energy of the third.  Second something more telling and progressive about a psychological drama in the culmination of this journey which is profound and much darker.  The brief trio gives way to a repeat of the scherzo material which ramps up almost to a frenzy.  It’s very exciting and not unfamiliar if you know your Brahms.  

I regard this symphony as one of number of works which exist to be endured.  This is a painful journey: maybe one needs to have understood loss, torment or just the unremitting presence of anxiety or depression to see where this music goes next. The Scherzo whips up the expectation - but as I have suggested before - this is all a trap.  The gaiety and triumph of the world is not continuous and the reality for a composer - reality bites to the bone.

The fourth movement is again a return to the ancient: in form - a Passecaglia on a theme borrowed from Bach.  The variations on the bass statement are many - beautiful, exciting and clever.  The opening begins with an 8 note statement of the material to be recycled on full wind and brass at fortissimo, the repetitions begin immediately.  If we hear this in very close proximity to the abrupt end of the scherzo (like to do that in all Brahms symphonies) we sense how much that Scherzo is a preparation for this chorale.  As a stand alone - the 8 notes sound austere (they always do after one hears what can be done with their elaborations).  The step from Scherzo to Finale is unnerving and frankly I think that’s the purpose of this entire symphony.

Brahms works through some amazing ideas in this last movement - from the simple form of the repeat to the off kilter third iteration to the weary waltz of the fourth - all are worth examination as marvels of Brahms art.  But like the face of beauty slips into long felt sadness in his later piano pieces Op 117 -119 that shadow - partly sentimental, sometimes very raw and always ambiguous    haunts the music of the last movement.  It moves quickly and with a growing sense of desperation and unease.  For me this is some of Brahms’ most fluent and purposeful orchestral writing - in his element I would say and far more meaningful in matters of pace, colour and attack than Beethovenian First symphony.

As it progressively closes the door behind us the sheer stark vision of it’s end might come as a surprise.  In my first 5 years of acquaintance I suspect I simply though that the ending was perfunctory. The trap is set and the door closes, the turbulent waters rise, the brass blare out and the hope is drained and a forceful pair of chords finish everything off.  It’s not just that there is no hope - as I hear it Brahms says you shouldn't conceive of hope in the first place. 

I commend this work but with the note that in symphonic terms I know of few which are as rough a ride.