BRAHMS 4

Brahms waited until he reached full creative maturity to begin his four symphonies, true monuments of 19th-century symphonic language. Symphony no. 4, 1885, is the composer’s farewell to the symphonic genre and the culmination of a tradition begun by Haydn and Beethoven. The third major descending interval that heads the initial movement becomes a structural and motivic foundation throughout the piece, while the final movement takes the model of the Baroque chaconnes, with a descending ostinato taken from Johann Sebastian Bach's Cantata 150 and elaborated along successive variations until climaxing in an ending soaked in the initial tragic pathos.