MASTERWORKS • 2016/2017 Colorado Symphony 2016/17 Season Presenting Sponsor:
BRAHMS CONDUCTED BY THE DRAGON COLORADO SYMPHONY CHRISTOPHER DRAGON, conductor JEFFREY KAHANE, piano COLORADO SYMPHONY CHORUS, DUAIN WOLFE, director / conductor Friday’s Concert is Gratefully Dedicated to Donald and Margery Langmuir / Dr. and Mrs. Richard Sanders Saturday's Concert is Gratefully Dedicated to Sherman & Howard L.L.C.
Friday, March 3, 2017, at 7:30pm Saturday, March 4, 2017, at 7:30pm Sunday, March 5, 2017, at 1:00pm Boettcher Concert Hall
BRAHMS
Nänie for Chorus and Orchestra, Op. 82
SCHUMANN Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 Allegro affettuoso Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso — Allegro vivace — INTERMISSION —
BRAHMS Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90 Allegro con brio Andante Poco allegretto Allegro
SOUNDINGS 2016/2017 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG PROGRAM 1
MASTERWORKS BIOGRAPHIES CHRISTOPHER DRAGON, conductor Australian conductor Christopher Dragon is in his second season as the Associate Conductor of the Colorado Symphony and commences his position as Principal Guest Conductor with the Denver Young Artists Orchestra. For three years, Christopher previously held the position of Assistant Conductor with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, which gave him the opportunity to work closely with Principal Conductor Asher Fisch. Christopher works regularly in Australia and has conducted the Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and West Australian Symphony Orchestras. His 2015 debut performance at the Sydney Opera House with Josh Pyke and the Sydney Symphony has been released on CD by ABC Music. In 2017, Christopher returns to the West Australian Symphony Orchestra for a subscription concert. In 2016, he made his Brazilian conducting debut with the Orquestra Sinfônica de Porto Alegre. He has also conducted at numerous festivals including the Breckenridge and Bangalow Music Festivals, both resulting with invitations to return. At the beginning of 2016, Christopher conducted Wynton Marsalis’ Swing Symphony as part of the Perth International Arts Festival alongside Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at the Lincoln Center Orchestra. In 2014, Christopher was selected from 100 international applicants to conduct the Princess Galyani Vadhana Youth Orchestra in Thailand and earlier that year participated in the Jarvi Winter Academy in Estonia where he was awarded the Orchestra’s Favourite Conductor Prize. Christopher began his conducting studies in 2011 and was a member of the prestigious Symphony Services International Conductor Development Program under the guidance of course director Christopher Seaman. He has also studied with numerous distinguished conductors including Leonid Grin, Paavo and Neeme Jarvi at the Jarvi Summer Festival, Fabio Luisi at the Pacific Music Festival, and conducting pedagogue Jorma Panula.
JEFFREY KAHANE, piano Equally at home at the keyboard or on the podium, Jeffrey Kahane has established an international reputation as a truly versatile artist. Since making his Carnegie Hall debut in 1983, Mr. Kahane has given recitals in many of the nation’s major music centers including New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. Currently in his 20th season as Music Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Mr. Kahane concluded his tenure as Music Director of the Colorado Symphony in June 2010 and for ten seasons was Music Director of the Santa Rosa Symphony, where he is now Conductor Laureate. Recent engagements include appearances at the Aspen, Caramoor, and Blossom festivals; concerto performances with the Toronto, Houston, New World, Colorado, and Oregon symphonies among others; play/ conducts with the San Francisco, National, Detroit, Vancouver, Indianapolis, and New Jersey symphonies and the Rochester Philharmonic, as well as for the third time in four seasons with the New York Philharmonic; and conducting the New England Conservatory Symphony Orchestra in Boston, the Juilliard Orchestra at Lincoln Center, and the National Repertory Orchestra in Colorado. A native of Los Angeles and a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Mr. Kahane received a Master’s Degree in Classics from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2011 and is a Professor of Keyboard Studies at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music.
PROGRAM 2 SOUNDINGS 2016/2017 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG
MASTERWORKS BIOGRAPHIES DUAIN WOLFE, director / conductor, Colorado Symphony Chorus Recently awarded two Grammys® for Best Choral Performance and Best Classical Recording, Duain Wolfe is founder and Director of the Colorado Symphony Chorus and Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus. This year marks Wolfe’s 31st season with the Colorado Symphony Chorus. The Chorus has been featured at the Aspen Music Festival for over two decades. Wolfe, who is in his 21st season with the Chicago Symphony Chorus has collaborated with Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Muti, and the late Sir George Solti on numerous recordings including Wagner’s Die Meistersinger, which won the 1998 Grammy® for Best Opera Recording. Wolfe’s extensive musical accomplishments have resulted in numerous awards, including an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the University of Denver, the Bonfils Stanton Award in the Arts and Humanities, the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Mayor’s Award for Excellence in an Artistic Discipline and the Michael Korn Award for the Development of the Professional Choral Art. Wolfe is also founder of the Colorado Children’s Chorale, from which he retired in 1999 after 25 years; the Chorale celebrated its 40th anniversary last season. For 20 years, Wolfe also worked with the Central City Opera Festival as chorus director and conductor, founding and directing the company’s young artist residence program, as well as its education and outreach programs. Wolfe’s additional accomplishments include directing and preparing choruses for Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, the Bravo!Vail Festival, the Berkshire Choral Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Grand Teton Music Festival. He has worked with Pinchas Zuckerman as Chorus Director for the Canadian National Arts Centre Orchestra for the past 13 years.
COLORADO SYMPHONY CHORUS The 2016-2017 Colorado Symphony Concert Season marks the 33rd year of the Colorado Symphony Chorus. Founded in 1984 by Duain Wolfe at the request of Gaetano Delogu, then the Music Director of the Symphony, the chorus has grown, over the past three decades, into a nationally-respected ensemble. This outstanding chorus of 180 volunteers joins the Colorado Symphony for numerous performances (more than 25 this year alone), and radio and television broadcasts, to repeat critical acclaim. The Chorus has performed at noted music festivals in the Rocky Mountain region, including the Colorado Music Festival, the Grand Teton Music Festival, and the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, where it has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Dallas Symphony. For over two decades, the Chorus has been featured at the world-renowned Aspen Music Festival, performing many great masterworks under the baton of notable conductors Lawrence Foster, James Levine, Murry Sidlin, Leonard Slatkin, Robert Spano, and David Zinman. Among the recordings the CSO Chorus has made is a NAXOS release of Roy Harris’s Symphony No. 4. The Chorus is also featured on a recent Hyperion release of the Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem and Stephen Hough’s Missa Mirabilis. In 2009, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Chorus, Duain Wolfe conducted the Chorus on a 3-country, 2-week concert tour of Europe, presenting the Verdi Requiem in Budapest, Vienna, Litomysl, and Prague, and in 2016 the Chorus returned to Europe for concerts in Paris, Strasbourg, and Munich. From Evergreen to Lochbuie, and Boulder to Castle Rock, singers travel each week to rehearsals and performances in Denver totaling about 80 a year. The Colorado Symphony continues to be grateful for the excellence and dedication of this remarkable, all-volunteer ensemble! For an audition appointment, call 303.308.2483. SOUNDINGS 2016/2017 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG PROGRAM 3
MASTERWORKS BIOGRAPHIES COLORADO SYMPHONY CHORUS ROSTER Duain Wolfe, Founding Director and Conductor; Mary Louise Burke, Associate Conductor; Travis Branam, Assistant Conductor; Taylor Martin, Assistant Conductor; Eric Israelson, Chorus Manager; Barbara Porter, Associate Manager; Brian Dukeshier, Danni Snyder, Accompanists SOPRANO I Brown, Jamie Causey, Denelda Choi, LeEtta H. Coberly, Sarah Colbert, Gretchen Daniels, Kaylin E. Dirksen, Sarah Dukeshier, Laura Emerich, Kate A. Gile, Jenifer D. Gill, Lori C. Graber, Susan. Guynn, Erika Harpel, Jennifer Henrich, Sarah B. Hinkley, Lynnae C. Hittle, Erin R. Hofmeister, Mary Hupp, Angela M. Joy, Shelley E. Kirschner, Mary E. Knecht, Melanie Kushnir, Marina Long, Lisa Look, Cathy Maupin, Anne Medema, Stephanie Moraskie, Wendy L. Perera, Alokya P. Porter, Barbara A. Ropa, Lori A. Rudolph, Kathi L. Schawel, Camilia Sladovnik, Roberta A. Solich, Stephanie A. Stegink, Nicole J. Tate, Judy Van Leeuwen, Andrea Williams, Courtney Young, Cara M. SOPRANO II Ascani, Lori Blum, Jude Bowen, Alex S. Brauchli, Margot L. Christus, Athanasia Coberly, Ruth A. Cote, Kerry H. Dakkouri, Claudia Gross, Esther J. Higginbotham, Heather
Irwin, Emily Khalifeh, Anne Kraft, Lisa D. Linder, Dana Montigne, Erin Nyholm, Christine M. O'Nan, Jeannette R. Pflug, Kim Rae, Donneve S. Rattray, Rebecca E. Rider, Shirley J. Ruff, Mahli Saddler, Nancy C. Snyer, Lynne M. Travis, Stacey L. Von Roedern, Susan K. Walker, Marcia L. Weinstein, Sherry L. Woodrow, Sandy Zisler, Joan M. ALTO I Adams, Priscilla P. Brady, Lois F. Branam, Emily M. Brown, Kimberly Buesing, Amy Clauson, Clair T. Conrad, Jayne M. Daniel, Sheri L. Drake, Erin A. Dunkin, Aubri K. Edwards, Dana Franz, Kirsten D. Frey, Susie Gayley, Sharon R. Groom, Gabriella D. Guittar, Pat Haller, Emily Holst, Melissa J. Hoopes, Kaia M. Horle, Carol E. Kolstad, Annie Kraft, Deanna Lawlor, Betsy McWaters, Susan Nordenholz, Kristen Passoth, Ginny Pringle, Jennifer Thayer, Mary B. Virtue, Pat Wyatt, Judith
ALTO II Boothe, Kay A. Carlisle, Allison Chatfield, Cass Cox, Martha E. Deck, Barbara Dominguez, Joyce Eslick, Carol A. Golden, Daniela Hoskins, Hansi Jackson, Brandy H. Janasko, Ellen D. Kibler, Janice London, Carole A. Maltzahn, Joanna K. Marchbank, Barbara J. McNulty, Kelly M. Mendicello, Beverly Meromy, Leah Nittoli, Leslie M. Paguirigan, Kali Pak, Lisa Schalow, Elle Scooros, Pamela R. Townsend, Lisa Trierweiler, Ginny TENOR I Dougan, Dustin Dukeshier, Brian Gewecke, Joel C. Gordon, Jr., Frank Hodel, David K. Moraskie, Richard A. Muesing, Garvis J. Nicholas, Timothy W. O’Donnell, William J. Reiley, William G. Roach, Eugene Waller, Ryan Wolf, Jeffrey P. Wyatt, Daniel Zimmerman, Kenneth A. TENOR II Babcock, Gary E. Bradley, Mac Carlson, James Davies, Dusty R. Fuehrer, Roger Gale, John H. Guittar, Jr., Forrest Kolm, Kenneth E.
PROGRAM 4 SOUNDINGS 2016/2017 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG
Martin, Taylor S. Mason, Brandt J. Meswarb, Stephen J. Milligan, Tom A. Ruth, Ronald L. Seamans, Andrew J. Sims, Jerry E. BASS I Adams, John G. Branam, Travis D. Carlton, Grant H. Cowen, George Drickey, Robert E. Falter, Corey M. Gray, Matthew Hesse, Douglas D. Hume, Donald Jirak, Thomas J. Lingenfelter, Paul Mehta, Nalin J. Quarles, Kenneth Rutkowski, Trevor B. Smith, Benjamin A. Struthers, David R. Williams, Benjamin Wood, Brian W. BASS II Charlock, Robert S. Friedlander, Bob Gibbons, Dan Grossman, Chris Israelson, Eric W. Jackson, Terry L. Kent, Roy A. Kraft, Mike A. Millar, Jr., Robert F. Moncrieff, Kenneth Morrison, Greg A. Nuccio, Eugene J. Phillips, John R. Skillings, Russell R. Swanson, Wil W. Taylor, Don Virtue, Tom G.
MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897): Nänie for Chorus and Orchestra, Op. 82 (1880-1881) Johannes Brahms was born on May 7, 1833, in Hamburg and died on April 3, 1897, in Vienna. He began Nänie, based on Schiller’s text, in 1880 and completed it the following summer. The composer conducted the Zurich Tonhallegesellschaft in the premiere on December 12, 1881. The score calls for woodwinds in pairs, two horns, three trombones, timpani, harp, and strings. Duration is about 13 minutes. This is the first performance by the orchestra. Nänie, the title of this solemnly beautiful work, is a German term derived from the Latin word for “dirge.” This musical funerary tribute was Brahms’ commemoration of the death in January 1880 of a close friend, the artist Anselm Feuerbach. While still feeling the pain of the recent loss of Feuerbach, Brahms attended a performance of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna on February 14, 1880; on the program was a setting of Schiller’s poem Nänie by the German composer Hermann Goetz (1840-1876). The aura of comforting serenity in a classical setting engendered by the words of the poem was a balm for Brahms’ own sadness, and the verses inspired him to raise a musical memorial to his departed friend. Walter Niemann, Brahms’ biographer, described the background of the text: “Neniae were the laments [of the ancient Greeks] for the dead sung at their funerals, originally by the surviving relatives, but later by hired female mourners, who beat their breasts and arms in sign of grief as they sang.... [In Brahms’ setting of Schiller’s poem] Death is represented as a kindly young divinity, the twin brother of Sleep, with his torch reversed. Softly he extinguishes the flame of life.” Brahms’ music throughout is of a peaceful, reassuring nature that recalls the opening and closing movements of the German Requiem. He cast the work in tripartite form, with the pacific opening section returning at the end to round out the musical structure. The central portion (“Aber sie steigt aus dem Meer”) called from him a more active rhythmic accompaniment to depict Aphrodite’s rising from the sea. Brahms closed this moving tribute to his friend with the consoling phrase, “To be even a song of lament on the lips of the loved one, is glory.” Auch das Schöne muss sterben! Das Menschen Even Beauty must die! That which und Götter bezwingt, subdues men and gods nicht die eherne Brust rührt es des does not move the steely stygischen Zeus. heart of Stygian Zeus. Einmal nur erreichte die Liebe den Only once did love touch the ruler Schattenbeherrscher, of the underworld und an der Schwelle noch, streng, rief er and still upon the threshold, sternly zurück sein Geschenk. he recalled his gift. Nicht stillt Aphrodite dem schönen Knaben Aphrodite does not tend the lovely die Wunde, youth’s wound, die in den zierlichen Leib grausam der Eber torn by the savage boar in his geritzt. graceful body. Nicht errettet den göttlichen Held die The immortal mother does not save unsterbliche Mutter, the godly hero wenn er, am skäischen Tor fallend, sein when, dying at the Scaean Schicksal erfüllt. gate, his destiny he fulfills.
SOUNDINGS 2016/2017 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG PROGRAM 5
MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES Aber sie steigt aus dem Meer mit allen But she rises from the sea with Töchtern des Nereus, all Nereus’ daughters und die Klage hebt an um den verherrlichten and the lament for the exalted son Sohn. goes up. Siehe, da weinen die Götter, es weinen Behold, the gods weep, all the die Göttinnen alle, goddesses weep dass das Schöne vergeht, dass das that beauty must fade, that Vollkommene stirbt. perfection must die. Auch ein Klaglied zu sein im Mund der Even to be an elegy in the mouth Geliebten ist herrlich, of the beloved is glorious denn das Gemeine geht klanglos for the ordinary goes down unsung zum Orkus hinab. to Orcus.
ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-1856): Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 (1841 and 1845) Robert Schumann was born on June 8, 1810, in Zwickau, Germany, and died on July 29, 1856, in Endenich, near Bonn. He composed a one-movement Fantasia for Piano and Orchestra in 1841 but was unable to have the work published immediately, so in 1845 he added two movements to it to create a full-length piano concerto. His wife, Clara, gave the premiere on December 4, 1845, at the Hôtel de Saxe in Dresden, with conductor Ferdinand Hiller. The score calls for woodwinds, horns and trumpets in pairs, timpani, and strings. Duration is about 30 minutes. Ingrid Fliter was the piano soloist and Jeffrey Kahane conducted the orchestra when the piece was last performed on September 11 & 12, 2009. Schumann’s Piano Concerto occupied a special place in his loving relationship with his wife, Clara. In 1837, three years before their marriage, Schumann wrote to her of a plan for a concerted work for piano and orchestra that would be “a compromise between a symphony, a concerto and a huge sonata.” It was a bold vision for Schumann who had, with one discarded exception, written nothing for orchestra. In 1841, the second year of their marriage, he returned to his original concept, and produced a Fantasia in one movement for piano with orchestral accompaniment. That memorable year also saw the composition of his Symphony No. 1 and the first version of the Fourth Symphony, a burst of activity that had been encouraged by Clara, who wanted her husband to realize his potential in forms larger than the solo piano works and songs to which he had previously devoted himself. Schumann had really drawn up his own blueprint for the piano and orchestra work in a prophetic article he wrote in 1839 for the journal he edited, the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (“New Journal for Music”): “We must await the genius who will show us, in a newer and more brilliant way, how orchestra and piano may be combined; how the soloist, dominant at the keyboard, may unfold the wealth of his instrument and his art, while the orchestra, no longer a mere spectator, may interweave its manifold facets into the scene.” The Fantasia seemed to satisfy the desires of both husband and wife. Clara ran through the work at a rehearsal of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra on August 13, 1841, and Robert thought highly enough of the piece to try to have it published. His attempts to secure a publisher for the new score met with one rejection after another, however, and, with great disappointment, he laid the piece aside. PROGRAM 6 SOUNDINGS 2016/2017 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG
MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES In 1844, Robert had a difficult bout with the recurring emotional disorder that plagued him throughout his life. After his recovery, he felt a new invigoration and resumed composition with restless enthusiasm. In May 1845, the Fantasia came down from the shelf with Schumann’s determination to breathe new life into it. He retained the original Fantasia movement and added to it an Intermezzo and Finale to create the three-movement Piano Concerto, which was to become one of the most popular works in the entire keyboard repertory. The public’s initial reaction to the new Concerto, however, was cool. The composition did not have any of the flamboyant virtuosity that was then routinely expected from a soloist (Liszt dubbed it “a concerto without piano”), and the originality of its formal conception put audiences off. Clara, undeterred, was convinced of the work’s value, and she was determined to have it heard. The style of the Concerto even helped her to find a new direction for her concertizing, since she thereafter left behind the vapid virtuoso showpiece, and concentrated instead on the more substantive music of Bach, Beethoven, and her husband. As Victor Basch wrote, she felt that this change in attitude and repertory “reconciled the discrepancy between her aspiration as an artist and her duties as a wife.” Clara’s perseverance had its reward — she lived to see not only this magnificent Concerto but all of her husband’s music become accepted and loved throughout the world. Schumann’s Piano Concerto is memorable not only for the beauty of its melodies and the felicity of its harmony, but also for the careful integration of its structure. Were the manner in which the work was composed unknown, there would be no way to tell that several years separate the creation of the first from the second and third movements. The Concerto’s sense of unity arises principally from the transformations of the opening theme heard throughout the work. This opening motive, a lovely melody presented by the woodwinds after the fiery, prefatory chords of the piano, pervades the first movement, serving not only as its second theme but also appearing in many variants in the development section. Even the coda, placed after a stirring cadenza, uses a double-time marching version of the main theme. The second movement is a three-part form with a soaring melody for cellos in its middle section. The movement’s initial motive, a gentle dialogue between piano and strings, is another derivative of the first movement’s opening theme. The principal theme of the sonata-form finale is yet another rendering of the Concerto’s initial melody, this one a heroic manifestation in triple meter; the second theme employs extensive rhythmic syncopations. After a striding central section, the recapitulation begins in the dominant key so that the movement finally settles into the expected tonic major key only with the syncopated second theme.
JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897): Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90 (1882-1883) Brahms began his Third Symphony in 1882 and completed the score between May and October of the following year in Wiesbaden, Germany. The Vienna Philharmonic under the direction of Hans Richter gave the premiere on December 2, 1883. The score calls for woodwinds in pairs plus contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and strings. Duration is about 40 minutes. The orchestra last performed the symphony on April 15 & 16, 2011, with Scott O’Neil conducting. Brahms had reached the not-inconsiderable age of 43 before he unveiled his First Symphony. The Second Symphony followed within eighteen months, and the musical world was prepared for a steady stream of similar masterworks from his pen. However, it was to be another SOUNDINGS 2016/2017 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG PROGRAM 7
MASTERWORKS PROGRAM NOTES six years before he undertook his Third Symphony, though he did produce the Academic Festival and Tragic Overtures, the Violin Concerto and the Second Piano Concerto during that time. When he got around to the new Symphony, he was nearly fifty and had just recovered from a spell of feeling that he was “too old” for creative work, even informing his publisher, Simrock, that he would be sending him nothing more. It seems likely — though such matters always remained in the shadows where Brahms was concerned — that his creative juices were stirred anew by a sudden infatuation with “a pretty Rhineland girl.” This was Hermine Spiess, a talented contralto who was 26 when Brahms first met her in January 1883 at the home of friends. (Brahms was fifty.) A cordial, admiring friendship sprang up between the two, but this affair, like every other one in Brahms’ life in which a respectable woman was involved, never grew any deeper. He used to declare, perhaps only half in jest, that he lived his life by two principles, “and one of them is never to attempt either an opera or a marriage.” Perhaps what he really needed was a muse rather than a wife. At any rate, Brahms spent the summer of 1883 not at his usual haunts in the Austrian hills and lakes, but at the German spa of Wiesbaden, which just happened to be the home of Hermine. Work went well on the new Symphony, and it was completed before he returned to Vienna in October. Brahms’ Third Symphony, the shortest of his four works in the form, is the most clear in formal outline, the most subtle in harmonic content, and the most assured in contrapuntal invention. No time is wasted in establishing the conflict that charges the first movement with dynamic energy. The two bold opening chords juxtapose bright F major and a somber chromatic harmony in the opposing moods of light and shadow that course throughout the work. The main theme comes from the strings “like a bolt from Jove,” according to Olin Downes, with the opening chords repeated by the woodwinds as its accompaniment. Beautifully directed chromatic harmonies — note the bass line, which always carries the motion to its close- and long-range goals — lead to the pastoral second theme, sung softly by the clarinet. The development section is brief, but includes elaborations of most of the motives from the exposition. The tonic key of F is re-established, not harmonically but melodically (note how the bass leads the way), and the golden chords of the opening proclaim the recapitulation. A long coda based on the main theme reinforces the tonality and discharges much of the music’s energy, allowing the movement to close quietly, as do, most unusually, all the movements of this Symphony. A folk-like theme appears in the rich colors of the low woodwinds and low strings to open the second movement. The central section is a Slavic-sounding plaint intoned by clarinet and bassoon that eventually gives way to the flowing rhythms of the opening and the return of the folk theme supported by a new, rippling string accompaniment. The romantic third movement replaces the usual scherzo. It is ternary in form, like the preceding movement, and utilizes the warmest tone colors of the orchestra. The finale begins with a sinuous theme of brooding character. A brief, chant-like processional derived from the Slavic theme of the second movement provides contrast. Further thematic material is introduced (one theme is arch-shaped; the other, more rhythmically vigorous) and well examined. Brahms dispensed here with a true development section, but combined its function with that of the recapitulation as a way of tightening the structure. As the end of the movement nears, the tonality returns to F major, and there is a strong sense of struggle passed. The tension subsides, and the work ends with the ghost of the opening movement’s main theme infused with a sunset glow. ©2016 Dr. Richard E. Rodda PROGRAM 8 SOUNDINGS 2016/2017 | COLORADOSYMPHONY.ORG