Mendelssohn. Yet, through this medium, he was able to soar to the highest peaks. Arnold Schoenberg, major innovator and pioneer of 20th-century music, wrote that he himself was influenced by Brahms and had learned a great deal from his music and novel ideas. According to Schoenberg, Brahms was a follower of the Classical style and tradition and at the same time a Romantic adventurer. Brahms works display a rare combination of inspiration andmastery of composition, Romantic expression and Classical understanding. One should remember that when he finished the symphony, Brahms was already a renowned composer, considered by many one of the greatest composers ever. Like his great teacher and loyal friend Robert Schumann, who had encouraged and supported himenthusiastically in his youth, Brahms composed four symphonies, in the customary symphonic form and structure. Yet, Brahms imparted the symphony with dimensions, content, and expression that were nearly unprecedented. Already in the tragic and intense introduction, in moderate pace and with drum strokes resembling heart beats, Beethoven's influence as well as a new phenomenon are noticeable. The first movement is heroic, with conflicting forces. It develops from the introduction in which initial ideas, like musical seeds, are presented, pronouncing that this is a symphony that expresses the composer's serious approach to life that is full of sorrow, suffering and tragedy (Brahms started composing the symphony after the mental breakdown and untimely death of Robert Schumann, to whom he was so attached). The movement, which develops with immense dramatic energy, ends with an abridged version of the introduction. The stormy drama of the first movement is replaced with a lyrical mood, reminiscent of a melancholy nocturne, in the slow movement in E major. The orchestration is light and transparent, with significant solos for oboe and then for violin, which sings in high tones. The clarinet is also given a prominent part. The third movement, a kind of scherzo in A-flat major, is innovative largely due to the graceful, delicate and imaginative orchestration, with a stormy and surprising Trio, suggestive in character of the first movement. The final movement, the longest and most colorful of the Symphony, portrays deep identification with Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. It begins with a dark, tense and restless introduction, and reaches a raging outburst, culminating in a radiant horn call in C major (followed by the flute), a mighty call dispersing the mists andmurky shadows. At this point, the trombones join for the first time, intoning a stern and festive chorale. The hymn-likemain theme, played by strings and later by winds, sounds for a few bars like the Ode to Joy from the finale of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Undoubtedly, the allusion and similarity to Beethoven's theme were a natural and palpable expression for Brahms. The movement soars to triumphant rejoicing and the ceremonial andmysterious sounds played at the beginning in the brass, led by the trombones, are repeatedwith increased intensity. Like Beethoven, the suffering and heroic struggle become pure joy. Yisrael Daliot * * * *
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