Herbert Blomstedt conducts Schubert & Brahms
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Symphony Hall, Boston, MA
Herbert Blomstedt, conductor
SCHUBERT Symphony No. 6
-Intermission-
BRAHMS Symphony No. 1
Herbert Blomstedt, celebrating a seven-decade conducting career, returns to lead the BSO in Franz Schubert's light-hearted, cheerful Symphony No. 6, composed when he was 20 and notable as a satisfyingly classical work preceding his more searching later symphonies. Brahms was strongly influenced by Schubert but more so still by Beethoven, whose symphonic shadow apparently kept Brahms from completing his First Symphony until he was 43 years old. A prominent theme in its finale is a direct nod to Beethoven’s Ninth.
Friday afternoon’s concert is generously supported by the Gilbert family.
Saturday evening’s concert is generously supported by Roberta L. Cohn in memory of Dr. Lawrence H. Cohn.
Pre-concert Talk
The February 14 performance will include a pre-concert talk starting at 12:15pm with former BSO Director of Program Publications, Marc Mandel.
Performance Details
Feb 13, 2025, 7:30pm EST
Featuring
Program Notes & Works
Symphony No. 6 in C, D.589
Schubert's early symphonies, nos. 1-6, composed mostly in his teens, are accomplished works in themselves and are very much of their time. They bear clear hallmarks of the Viennese masters Mozart, Haydn, and especially Beethoven, whose Seventh and Eighth symphonies were fresh in Viennese ears when S...
Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Opus 68
Though Johannes Brahms already had several works for orchestra behind him when he completed his Symphony No. 1 at age 43, he knew that the genre required a newfound comfort level in writing for the orchestra, and, still more significantly, a reckoning with his anxiety of following in Beethoven’s foo...
