Symphony No. 3 by Brahms the Bachelor

As we approach the end of the 2007-08 season, we return to our Spotlight Composers. While next week holds Golijov’s monumental Ainadamar in store, this week

we hear Brahms’ Symphony No. 3. Each Brahms symphony is a gem, and each for a different reason. What makes the Third so revered is its matchless combination of soaring (even catchy) melodies and raw power.

Like so much of Brahms’ work, the Third Symphony was written on a summer holiday (this time in Wiesbaden) and several musicologists speculate that Brahms – a lifelong bachelor – may have been feeling pangs of regret or unrest at his bachelor status. He chose Wiesbaden primarily to be near a singer, Hermine Spies (pictured at right), who he had grown very fond of, and because she was far too young for the 50 year-old composer, Brahms must have felt at least like he was getting old, and quite possibly that his chance for marriage had passed forever.

Coupled with the three-note, F-A-F, Frei Aber Froh! (Free but happy!) theme that – in typical complex puzzle-like Brahms fashion – so completely saturates the symphony, it’s easy for one to believe that love was on the composer’s mind as he sat to pen this symphony.

Maybe this can explain the unlikely bedfellows of tender melodies and Brahmsian grandeur that make this masterpiece an audience favorite again and again. Just how these complex emotions interact in and shape the music is for you to decide.