Manfred Honeck
Francesco Piemontesi Johannes Brahms

What started as an attempt to write a sonata gradually developed into Piano Concerto No. 1. More than twenty years later, in Symphony No. 3, Brahms wove his life motto "Frei aber froh" – free but happy – into the very fabric of the music, creating one of his most emotionally charged symphonies.

Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1

Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) developed a close relationship with Clara and Robert Schumann during the period when he composed his first piano concerto. This was his first orchestral work, but the road there was long. Robert Schumann's suicide attempt affected Brahms deeply, and many historians believe parts of the piano concerto were written as a direct response to this devastating news. Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor was completed in 1858, two years after Robert Schumann's death, and premiered the following year.

Brahms: Symphony No. 3

Johannes Brahms lived alone for most of his life but denied that this was a lonely existence. One way he expressed this was through the musical motto "Frei aber froh," meaning "free but happy." In Symphony No. 3 he uses this motto again, with the F–A–F motif appearing already in the opening of the work. This suggests that Brahms was in a melancholic frame of mind when he composed the symphony during the summer of 1883. It is a dramatic work with great emotional contrasts. One moment it is intense and extroverted, the next reflective and nostalgic.