Brahms' gloomy symphony.

[teamsaint]

It's on the LSO Live label and so a combination of a couple of live performances. It's still my favourite Brahms 2.

Well good news. Thanks for the steer,Pet, i thought it must be, and managed to pick up a used copy for a penny last night. Sounds exceptionally tempting.

[Madame Suggia]

Don't find this a gloomy symphony at all..in face it's quite the reverse for me.

Got to know this piece from a BBC music mag recording conducted by Jiri Belohlavek

[Petrushka]

The point is, as Lento alluded to in the original post, that Brahms humorously described his new symphony to his publisher, Simrock, as 'being so melancholy you will not be able to hear it'. To Elisabeth von Herzogenberg after the premiere he said that 'the musicians play my new work with crepe round their arms because it sounds so mournful'.

Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth, as Brahms well knew.

[Lento]

Shouldn't the 4th be considered Brahms' Gloomy Symphony?

With the exception of the 3rd mvt, I think of it as a satisfyingly severe piece!