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embroider its arabesques and filigrees upon the thematic material with captivating and tender beauty. The Finale (Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace) is a virtuoso's tour de force, built upon a compact rondo structure, containing three distinct themes. The jovial main theme, in thirds, is stated at once by the solo violin. The thematic material and its eventual elaboration provide many hazards for the soloist: precarious passagework, double-stopping and arpeggiated figurations. But the music, inhabiting the carefree world of Hungarian gypsies, is quite spirited and fascinating—music of incisive rhythmic charm and great zest, which in turn pays tribute to the composer's friend and colleague, Joachim. After the proceedings accelerate to a quick march tempo based on the main theme, the brilliant coda finally slows down to bring the concerto to its elegant conclusion. ©1994 Columbia Artists Management Inc. Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68 Johannes Brahms Born May 7, 1833, in Hamburg; Died April 3, 1897, in Vienna "There must suddenly appear one who should utter the highest ideal expression of his time...and he has come, this chosen youth over whose cradle the Graces and Heroes seem to have kept watch. His name is Johannes Brahms.” Robert Schumann-1853 The difficult road to Brahms' First Symphony was one of toil, plagued by self-doubts and marked by trial and error. Brahms began his Symphony No. 1 in C Minor in 1862 when he produced a sketch of the first movement. Of this initial sketch only the exposition made it to the completed work. In the years that intervened between this first sketch and the completion of the work, each of the symphony's four movements went through multiple revisions. Volumes of numerous drafts and Sketches were continually discarded and destroyed as the composer's self-criticism induced him to spare no effort that seemed to promise even the slightest improvement. Simultaneously, Brahms attempted several other Symphonie works, but none of them pleased him enough, and thus were abandoned before their completion. Finally in 1876, Brahms met his Standards and set to paper the last notes of the score of his First Symphony. Brahms' Symphony No. 1 begins with a somber and tense, yet imposing introduction, marked Un poco sostenuto. After the initial tonic octave Cs in all Instruments of the orchestra, rises the primary motif of the entire first movement: a majestic, chromatically ascending sweep of strings against an organ-like descending counterfigure for the woodwinds, as the basses, contra-bassoon and timpani reiterate a persistent C. The following Allegro marks the actual exposition of this vast sonata form. The main theme consists of two elements: the chromatic motif front the introduction and a
