Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 | Daniel Barenboim, Gustavo Dudamel & the Staatskapelle Berlin

Thanks! Share it with your friends!

You disliked this video. Thanks for the feedback!

Added 1 month ago by

3 Views

A masterful piano concerto by Johannes Brahms. Here, the Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 15 is performed by Daniel Barenboim on the piano, Gustavo Dudamel conducting, and the Staatskapelle Berlin at the Philharmonie Berlin in 2014.

(00:00) Coming on stage
(00:41) I. Maestoso
(24:10) II. Adagio
(38:32) III. Rondo. Allegro non troppo

It took Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) a full five years to write his first piano concerto. He began composing it in the spring of 1854, shortly after the attempted suicide of his friend and mentor Robert Schumann. Finally, on 22 January 1859, the Piano Concerto No. 1 in in D Minor, Op. 15, had its premiere at the Royal Court Theatre in Hanover under the direction of Joseph Joachim. Performing at the piano was the composer himself.

It had been a long and arduous journey: Brahms had originally planned a sonata for two pianos, but came to the conclusion that two pianos were not enough to give full expression to the music. The attempt to rework the draft into a symphony stalled in its early stages because the young Brahms was not yet up to the supreme task of composing instrumental music in the tradition of Beethoven.

In February 1855, he had the idea of reworking the draft of the first movement of the piano sonata into a piano concerto, as he wrote in a letter to Clara Schumann: "Can you imagine the dream I had last night. I had turned my failed symphony into my piano concerto and was playing it. From the first movement and scherzo to the finale, it was terribly difficult and powerful. I was absolutely thrilled." After several revisions, the final result was an impressive work with three long movements.

Fun fact: Incidentally, it would be many years before Brahms presented his First Symphony in 1876, the result of a no less lengthy compositional process.

© 2014 Unitel

Watch more concerts in your personal concert hall: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_SdnzPd3eBV5A14dyRWy1KSkwcG8LEey

Find the best of Brahms here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_SdnzPd3eBU5_GAu2NLbH0fBf6CEX8kQ

and check out more piano concertos here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mh4mEKEdRw&list=PL_SdnzPd3eBU5_GAu2NLbH0fBf6CEX8kQ

Subscribe to DW Classical Music:
https://www.youtube.com/dwclassicalmusic

#pianoconcerto #brahms #classicalpiano