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Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 on SACD

Recently awarded the prestigious Brahms Prize of the

Schleswig-Holstein Brahms Society, Kent Nagano and

the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, of which he

was principal conductor from 2015 until 2025, perform

the last two symphonies by the Hamburg-born

composer, recorded in concert.

The most personal of Johannes Brahms's four

symphonies, the Third is both heroic and deeply

troubled; moreover, all four movements end quietly.

After the heroism of the First Symphony and the

pastoral flavours of the Second, the Third Symphony

reveals Brahms at a crossroads: the youthful impulses

are now reined in and the mood is more one of

profound reflection on life and death. The theme of the

slow movement has been adapted many times and even

sung by Frank Sinatra under the title of 'Take My Love'.

The Fourth Symphony might be described as the most

classical of Brahms's symphonies, not least because of it's

chaconne finale, a variation form inherited from the

baroque era. Described as an 'autumn symphony' or

'elegiac', it's mood is sometimes tormented and fiery,

sometimes harsh and solitary. The culmination of a

genre that cost him so much effort, the Fourth is the last

word of Brahms the symphonist; he would never

compose another work of this kind.