Vienna Philharmonic · Tugan Sokhiev · Seong-Jin Cho
The new symphony is so melancholy you won't be able to bear it. The score will have to be printed with a black border of mourning. — Brahms to his publisher Simrock, 1877 · a joke about what would turn out to be his sunniest symphony
at a glance 🔭💭
people on the stage ⏳🌊
- pianoSeong-Jin ChoBorn in Seoul in 1994. In 2009 he became the youngest-ever winner of the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition at fifteen, and in 2015 he became the first Korean to win the International Chopin Piano Competition, stepping into the very center of the world stage. He studied under Michel Béroff at the Paris Conservatoire and, as a Deutsche Grammophon artist, has extended his territory to include Handel (2023) and the complete works of Ravel (2025, the 150th anniversary of his birth). Beethoven's Fourth is a concerto in which the soloist speaks first — how those five soft opening bars meet a pianist renowned for his refined sound is the heart of tonight.
- conductorTugan SokhievBorn in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia, in 1977. He studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory as part of the last generation of students under the legendary conducting teacher Ilya Musin. He served as music director of the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse (2008–2022) and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (2014–2022), stepping down from both posts together in March 2022. He made his name in the Russian·French repertoire, but his unforced, melody-attentive conducting suits a 'singing' program like tonight's well.
- orchestraVienna PhilharmonicFounded in 1842. It is a self-governing orchestra with no permanent conductor, run by its own members, who invite a guest conductor for each concert. Its players are drawn from the Vienna State Opera Orchestra, and with instruments unique to Vienna — the Vienna horn·Vienna oboe — it has preserved the texture known as the 'Vienna sound.' And its tie to tonight's program: this is the very orchestra that premiered Brahms's Second Symphony in 1877. 149 years later, the orchestra that gave its premiere takes up the same piece again.
- conductor of the 1877 premiereHans RichterHe premiered Brahms's Second on December 30, 1877, with the Vienna Philharmonic. This is the same man who, the year before in Bayreuth, had conducted the premiere of Wagner's complete Ring cycle — a rare figure who moved between two camps that had turned their backs on each other, Wagner and Brahms. At the premiere, the third movement was played once more at the audience's applause.
I. Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 — the soloist speaks first · 1806
(a break with convention) The concerto was a genre in which the orchestra opened the door. The soloist waited for a long introduction to end before entering — true of all twenty-seven of Mozart's concertos. Beethoven overturns this convention at the very opening of the Fourth. The piano speaks first, alone, softly, five bars of a G-major chord. And the orchestra answers quietly not in the same key but in the distant key of B major. It was a first in the history of the concerto. (middle period) This work was written in 1805–06, at the hottest point of Beethoven's middle period. It came off the same desk as the Razumovsky Quartets, the Fourth Symphony, and the Appassionata Sonata. It received its public premiere at the Theater an der Wien on December 22, 1808, with Beethoven himself as soloist, at the legendary four-hour concert that also premiered the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies together. It was the last night he stood on stage as a concerto soloist, his hearing already collapsing. (Orpheus) The second movement, Andante con moto, is short. In E minor, the strings press in rough unison while the piano answers as gently as a chorale. The pressing eases little by little, and in the end only the piano's song remains. Later listeners read this as Orpheus, opening the gates of the underworld with nothing but a lyre — not a title Beethoven gave it himself, but an interpretation that has stuck because what the music does mirrors that myth. (rondo) The third movement follows the second without pause. It opens pretending to be in C major before a playful turn back to the home key of G major, and the trumpets and timpani appear here for the first time in the work — spending at the end all the light the first two movements had held in reserve.
First, listen straight through. Five bars opened by the soloist, and the orchestra answering off to the side in B major — everything in this work is foretold on the first page.
- opening — five bars of stillness, the piano alone before the orchestra
- second movement — how the strings' pressing insistence subsides under the piano's song
- cadenza at the end of the first movement — which cadenza this soloist chooses
The same work, a different soloist. Comparing where tempo and cadenza choices diverge lets you start hearing 'Seong-Jin Cho's choices' in the concert hall.
- first movement — how the breath of the first five bars differs from ①
- cadenza — first check whether it's the same cadenza as in ①
- third movement — the difference in weight at the first burst of trumpets and timpani
There is no official recording yet of Seong-Jin Cho performing the Fourth (the videos circulating online are unauthorized bootlegs, so they aren't included here). Instead, get acquainted with his Beethoven sound through a different Beethoven concerto — a full performance of the 'Emperor' on MBC's stage.
- touch in the soft passages — how Cho handles 'softly'
- the breathing exchange with the orchestra — imagining the dialogue movement of the Fourth
- a solo passage in cadenza style — the fun of guessing his cadenza for October 25
II. Brahms Symphony No. 2 — one summer at Lake Wörth · 1877
(one summer) The man who spent twenty-one years on his First Symphony finished the Second in a single summer. In the summer of 1877, at Pörtschach, a lakeside town in Carinthia, Brahms wrote in a letter, 'so many melodies fly about here that one must be careful not to step on them.' That lightness soaked straight into the work, and from around the time of the premiere it was called 'Brahms's Pastoral Symphony.' (joke and truth) And yet Brahms sent his publisher, Simrock, the opposite kind of joke — that the new symphony was so melancholy it should be printed with a black border. It wasn't pure jest. Even within the sunlit first movement, trombones and tuba cast a low shadow. Asked why he had put in such a dark sound, Brahms wrote back: 'I am a deeply melancholy person, and black wings are constantly flapping above us.' The brightness of this work is the brightness of someone who knows the shade. (three notes) The key to the whole work lies in the first bar. Three notes from the cellos and basses — D–C♯–D — this small seed runs through all four movements, transforming itself into the horn theme, the waltz-like second theme, and the opening theme of the finale. Carry just this one thing into the hall, and you've already done half your homework for the concert. (premiere) Vienna, December 30, 1877, with Hans Richter and the Vienna Philharmonic — the very orchestra taking the stage on October 25. When the oboe-led third movement ended, the audience applauded and asked for it again — it remains the most beloved movement of the work to this day.
Hold onto the cello and bass's three notes in the first bar (D–C♯–D) all the way through. The architecture of this work is the process of one seed growing into four movements.
- first movement, opening bar — D–C♯–D, and the horn taking it up at once
- first movement, second theme — a waltz for cellos and violas, a song like a lullaby
- fourth movement — a hushed opening and the trombones' final blossoming into D major
Interpretations diverge between those that foreground pastoral brightness and those that lay the trombones' shadow on thick. Hearing both versions lets you see where October's live performance stands.
- first movement trombones — how deep a shadow they cast
- second movement — the tempo carrying the cello's long song
- third movement — the drop between the pastoral theme and the fast variations
III. a path for preparation — what to listen for in the hall
(order) The recommended path is three steps. First, let both works play once through as background music — the stage of letting the melodies become familiar. Next, listen once closely, points from the cards above in hand. The night before the concert, listen only to Beethoven's second movement and Brahms's third — short movements, and the two that will resonate most in the hall. (in the Beethoven) Don't miss the stillness of the first five bars — the moment the pianist, not the conductor, opens the concert. The cadenza at the end of the first movement is where you hear the soloist's own choice. Beethoven left two cadenzas of his own, and most soloists play one of them, but some bring a different cadenza altogether. If it sounds different from the video you studied, this is exactly where. (in the Brahms) Keep tracking D–C♯–D. In the third movement, follow the tempo shifts as the oboe's pastoral theme is flung out into fast variations twice and returns. And the fourth movement opens hushed, sotto voce — expect a grand opening and you'll miss the start itself. At the end, the trombones open wide into D major for the brightest close in all four of Brahms's symphonies. Applause between movements is conventionally held back, but the audience at this work's premiere demanded an encore of the third movement with their applause — you'll understand that impulse, at least. (one night) On paper, this is a G-major concerto and a D-major symphony — two keys neighboring each other as dominant, and, in character, both works that 'sing.' It's a night carried by melody, not driven by force. So the point of preparing isn't to memorize the flashy passages but to plant the quiet ones — Beethoven's five bars, Brahms's three notes — in your ear beforehand.
glossary 📚🔎
cadenza (cadenza)
The point near the end of a concerto movement where the orchestra falls silent and the soloist displays their skill alone. Originally improvised, but Beethoven wrote out two of his own for the Fourth — which is why what the soloist plays tonight becomes a point of interest.
Akademie (Akademie)
In Beethoven's time, a self-produced concert given by a composer using only their own works. At the Akademie of December 22, 1808, the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, the Fourth Concerto, and the Choral Fantasy were all premiered in a single night — four hours in an unheated theater.
sotto voce (sotto voce)
'in a subdued voice.' The opening marking of the fourth movement of Brahms's Second — a held breath just before an eruption, so expecting a grand start means missing the start itself.
dominant key (dominant key)
The key a perfect fifth above the tonic. The dominant of G major is D major — the closest neighbor in tonal music, which is why tonight's pairing of the two works reads as a single breath.