Overture Magazine - 2018-19 Season FINAL_BSO_Overture_May_June | Page 18

BRAHMS VIOLIN CONCERTO
Magnifi que
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with thea eck
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904 N Charles St,
Baltimore, MD 21201
Bistro: 410-385-9946
Catering: 410-385-9956
Fax: [phone]
marielouisebistrocatering. com
premier high schools, and served on its
Board of Directors.
Jonathan is presently on the
faculty of the Brevard Music Center,
an intensive seven-week summer
music festival in the mountains
of western North Carolina. As a
sought-after clinician he also gives
master classes throughout the U.S.
and abroad. Carney is currently a
frequent guest concertmaster with the
Seoul Philharmonic and the Singapore
Symphony Orchestra. 
Carney performs on a 1687 Stradivarius,
the Mercur-Avery, on which he
uses Vision strings by Thomastik-
Infeld. Carney’s string sponsor is
Connolly & Co., exclusive U.S. importer
of Thomastik-Infeld strings.
Jonathan Carney last appeared as a
soloist with the BSO in April 2018,
performing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto,
Markus Stenz, conductor.
About the Concert
REGISTER NOW FOR THE SUMMER SESSION
VIOLIN CONCERTO IN D MAJOR
Johannes Brahms
Born in Hamburg, Germany, May 7, 1833;
died in Vienna, Austria, April 3, 1897
Come learn with us this summer
at the PEABODY PREPARATORY.
Summer programs and workshops
are offered for students of all
ages in chamber music, creative
leadership, dance, early childhood,
guitar, music theory, piano,
strings, and voice.
peabody.jhu.edu/prepsummer
667-208-6640
16
OV E R T U R E / BSOmusic.org
The late 1870s, when Johannes Brahms
wrote his only violin concerto, were the
high summer of the composer’s artistic
life. In 1876, he had finally won his
two-decade struggle to write a symphony
and had completed and premiered his First
Symphony. The next year, 1877, brought
its successor, the relatively conflict-free
Symphony No. 2 in D Major. The Violin
Concerto, also in D major, followed
immediately on its heels; composed
during the summer and fall of 1878,
it was premiered in Leipzig on New
Year’s Day 1879 with its dedicatee,
the great violinist and one of Brahms’
closest friends, Joseph Joachim, as soloist
and Brahms himself conducting the
Gewandhaus Orchestra.
Now in his mid-40s, Brahms had
settled into an established routine that
met both his creative and personal
needs. Most of the year, he was based
in Vienna, attending to the editing,
publishing and performing of his
works. Summers were devoted to
composing in mountain or lakeside
retreats in rural Austria or Switzerland;
like many composers, Brahms needed
beautiful scenery to stimulate his
creative juices. In 1877 and 1878, he
had found a particularly inspiring
location at Pörtschach on Lake Worth
in southern Austria, where he claimed,
“melodies are so abundant one must
be careful not to step on them.” Here
in the shadow of the beautiful snow-
capped peaks of the Carinthian Alps,
he wrote both the Second Symphony
and the Violin Concerto.
A confirmed bachelor, Brahms
depended on a network of friends to
maintain his “Frei aber froh” motto:
“free but happy.” Chief among them
was Joachim: violin virtuoso, composer
of stature (though his works are seldom
heard today), conductor, chamber
musician and an artist who shared
Brahms’ own commitment to music of
substance and profundity. Brahms and
Joachim had known each other since
they were very young men.
Inevitably, Brahms would create a
concerto for his friend, and, equally
inevitably, this concerto would be the
product of close collaboration. Not only
did Brahms confer with Joachim about
what figurations would work most
effectively on the violin, but Joachim
also influenced the orchestral part,
suggesting where Brahms could thin
his often-thick textures to allow a better
balance with the violin. But, stubborn
in his artistic principles, Brahms always
had the last say.
The sonata-form first movement
paints an epic canvas with vast
exposition and development sections.
Brahms introduces his first theme
immediately in the most austere fashion:
just the dark tones of bassoons, horns,
violas and cellos playing in octaves. Yet
some 15 minutes later, at the beginning
of the recapitulation section, we will
experience a tremendous sense of
homecoming and fulfillment as this
theme returns in the full orchestra,