Brahms: Symphony No. 2, Op. 73 & Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56a

Featuring

Yutaka Sado
Tonkünstler-Orchester
Johannes Brahms

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Composer Biography

Johannes Brahms struggled for 15 years with his First Symphony, finding the challenge of composing a symphony after Beethoven immense.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Brahms did not aim to be modern or progressive; instead, he sought to create works worthy of the great masters of the past, such as Bach, Mozart, and Schubert.

Composition History

Brahms's Second Symphony was composed rapidly, within a few months in 1877, after he spent the summer in Pörtschach on the Wörthersee, which stimulated his musical imagination.

Performer Biography

Yutaka Sado, the conductor, was a student of Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa and has served as Music Director of the Tonkünstler Orchestra since 2015.

Performer Biography

Yutaka Sado is widely known in Japan for hosting a weekly TV program that introduced classical music and for conducting an annual performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with 10,000 choristers.

Recording & Production

This album was recorded in Vienna during the extremely difficult period of the Covid-19 lockdown.

Compositional Technique

Brahms's Haydn Variations established a new tradition of orchestral variation, influencing later composers like Dvořák, Elgar, Reger, Schoenberg, and Britten.