# Brahms Symphony Movements



## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)

What is your favorite Brahms symphonic movement?


I went with the Fourth symphony, first movement- such a lovely opening.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

For me it is the Brahms 4 second movement. So mysterious. I imagine myself on the deck of a ferry between islands in Denmark; nothing but fog and a cool breeze when I hear it.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

They all are great, so won't vote.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

The last movement of Symphony 4. I love how Brahms uses the Passacaglia form in this movement.


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## Lenny (Jul 19, 2016)

I always enjoy the last movement of #2. Such an uplifting and positive movement.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Toss-up for me between #2/IV and #4/IV.


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## Brahmsian Colors (Sep 16, 2016)

I'm most fond of the second movements of the Third and Fourth Symphonies.


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Heck148 said:


> Toss-up for me between #2/IV and #4/IV.


Those are my two favorite movements as well. I basically had to flip a coin to decide which one to pick! :lol:

I love the haunting Phrygian-mode opening in #2/IV, and it's a thrilling moment when the opening melody is repeated with a C-major harmonization. But #4/IV is so ingenious in its use of repeating bass patterns paired with varied melodies.


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

Ha. I voted 4.1 thinking I might be in the minority but it is the leading choice currently. I love all of the movements but if I had to choose one as least liked, it would be 1.3.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

3.1 for me. Somehow it got right through to me when I was an impressionable teenager beginning to widen my musical horizons.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I like 1.3. It is Brahms at his pithiest. Even so, the rhythms are complex.

Pithy, but complex. Sounds like anybody you know?


Unjustly underrated, IMO.


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## Templeton (Dec 20, 2014)

hpowders said:


> I like 1.3. It is Brahms at his pithiest. Even so, the rhythms are complex.
> 
> Pithy, but complex. Sounds like anybody you know?
> 
> Unjustly underrated, IMO.


Totally agree with your choice. It's also the one that I voted for. It's one of the most beautiful movements in classical music, as far as I am concerned.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Templeton said:


> Totally agree with your choice. It's also the one that I voted for. It's one of the most beautiful movements in classical music, as far as I am concerned.


Thank you, Templeton. I appreciate that. It's labeled "grazioso" and that is a perfect description of how it makes me feel.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Just listened to 2 of my favorite Brahms Symphony mvts:

#2/IV - Reiner/NYPO 
#4/IV - Reiner/RoyalPO

both great performances.
the #2 recording is from live performance of 3/60...very exciting, the finale is thrilling...Reiner does some tempo fluctuation - starts out at a good clip - broader tempo for the famous 2nd theme. The coda starts out softly, a little slower, but with steady accelerando thru to the end...Reiner, as usual, really gives the brass the "green light", and they respond quite spectacularly - Reiner gives it the throttle in the final declaration of the 2nd theme, trumpets, then trombones, and it's pretty wild, at the edge [not as crazy as Walter's accelerando NYPO, early 50s recording, but still almost to the unplayable edge, but not quite...thrilling, to say the least...audience goes wild with applause.

#4 with RoyalPO - one of Reiner's last recordings - 10/62, engineered by Kenneth Wilkinson - who produced so many of the great London SO recordings of that time Kertesz/LSO, etc - this is a great Brams #4, along with Toscanini/NBC, my favorite - they share many similarities. Reiner addresses the architecture of mvt IV most effectively - the chaconne mvt [melodic variations over ground bass]. there is seamless flow between the variations, the middle section is very quiet and lovely, flute solo, chorale figures for bass instruments...this sets up the drama of the following section most effectively - again - Reiner lets the brass [trombones] loose. tremendous section playing with the high tessitura of trombone I booming out over the orchestra...this section can get rhythmically sloppy, but not here...great precision, and with most effective dynamic contrast and forward motion...the drama just increases until the end - with the contrasts in dynamic and intensity well-observed...

both recordings, most enjoyable......


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

I picked the first movement of Brahms' Fourth Symphony (to me, this is Brahms at his most personal). But the Poco allegretto (third movement) of Symphony no. III is simply sublime.


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## Chiroptera (Dec 8, 2016)

I personally love the Fourth movement of the Second symphony. I find that the phrases push forward brilliantly and that the lines thus evoked can be quite moving. 

My favorite recordings:

For the "ideal" Germanic sound: Karajan/Berlin
For hefty momentum and drastic waves of disparate tempos : Walter/New York
For overall musicality and sweeping sound: Kleiber/Vienna (found easily only in Video format)


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

Chiroptera said:


> I personally love the Fourth movement of the Second symphony. I find that the phrases push forward brilliantly and that the lines thus evoked can be quite moving.
> 
> My favorite recordings:
> 
> ...


Me too. After the 1st movement of the 4th, my favorite movements are the 4th movements, probably in the order 3rd, 4th, 1st and 2nd.


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