Brahms Symphony No. 1 in Building a Library with Katy Hamilton & Andrew McGregor
Katy Hamilton selects her favourite recording of Brahms Symphony No. 1 in C minor and Jeremy Sams shares his choice of the latest classical releases.
Andrew McGregor with the best new recordings of classical music.
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Jeremy Sams shares his choice of some of the most exciting new classical releases.
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Building a Library
Katy Hamilton selects her favourite version of Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68.
Like so many composers in the post-Beethovenian Austro-German world, Brahms struggled with what a symphony should be and it wasn't until he was 43, with two orchestral serenades and a symphony-turned-piano-concerto under his belt that he managed to complete his first. On the surface, the First Symphony's C minor-to-major, darkness-to-light journey (and a tune in the last movement which, as Brahms put it, 'any idiot could see' was a near quote of the Ode to Joy) might seem freighted with Beethoven's pervasive influence. But this compelling music is suffused with the spirit and sound-world of late 19th century Romanticism and marks the beginning of another exceptional symphonic cycle.
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Record of the Week: Andrew’s top pick.
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