Symphony No. 4 (Brahms)

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The Symphony No. 4 in E minor by Johannes Brahms is the last of his symphonies. It has the opus number 98. It is a lushly romantic, lyric piece and is considered by many to be his magnum opus, along with Ein deutsches Requiem.

Brahms began working on the piece in 1884, just a year after completing his Symphony No. 3, and completed it in 1885. It lasts about forty minutes and, like most symphonies, is divided into four movements:

Allegro non troppo
Andante moderato
Allegro giocoso
Allegro energico e passionato

It is written for an orchestra consisting of two flutes (one doubling on piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, a contrabassoon, four French horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, triangle, and strings (violins, violas, cellos and double basses).

The monumental first movement was Brahms at his most dramatic and passionate while the contemplative second movement had an air of a requiem. The exuberant and joyful third movement (written last) resounds with triangles. The last movement is notable as a rare example of a symphonic chaconne, which is similar to a passacaglia. Brahms himself referred to it as a chaconne. For the repeating theme, Brahms' adapted the passacaglia theme in the closing movement of Johann Sebastian Bach's cantata, Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich. The symphony is rich in allusions, most notably to various Beethoven compositions.

The work was given its premiere in Meiningen on October 25, 1885 with Brahms himself conducting the performance. It was well received and has remained popular since. The piece had earlier been given to a small private audience in a version for two pianos (one of them played by Brahms). Brahms' friend and biographer Max Kalbeck, reported that the critic Eduard Hanslick, on hearing the first movement in this performance, exclaimed "For this whole movement I had the feeling that I was being given a beating by two incredibly intelligent people." Hanslick later spoke more approvingly of it, however.

Arnold Schoenberg, in his essay Brahms the Progressive, pointed out several thematic relationships in the score, as does Malcolm MacDonald in his biography of the composer. The first half of the passacaglia theme is anticipated in the bass during the coda at an important point of the preceding movement; and the first movement's descending thirds, transposed by a fifth, appear in counterpoint during one of the final variations of the passacaglia.