In the Austrian countryside, "melodies spring up everywhere and one must be careful not to step on them when walking", Johannes Brahms once remarked. It must be true, because most of his best works were composed during his summer vacations, in the Austrian Alps or in the forests around Vienna. He spent the summer of 1880 in Bad Ischl, a fashionable bathing resort of the time, where the Viennese musical and intellectual elite went to escape from the hustle and bustle of the time – if there was one –, while at the same time rubbing shoulders with the nobility.
But that summer the weather was not kind to Johannes, who by then was approaching fifty. It was a freezing and rainy summer. An ear infection made matters worse. Fearful of going deaf, like Beethoven, the composer left for Vienna for a few days to visit an ear specialist and made a full recovery. A few days later, he was back in Bad Ischl.
Despite all the unforeseen events and distractions, he succeeded in finishing there the composition of his only two orchestral overtures: the jovial Academic Festival, and the less festive but not fatal Tragic Overture, despite its title.
A joke?
Even today, scholars still disagree about the tragedy – personal or drawn from literature – that would have led the composer to title the work that way. In a letter to his publisher, Brahms suggests the words "dramatic", "tragic," or "tragedy," but adds that none of these adjectives satisfies him. It seems a matter of marketing. Moreover, the composer himself is known to have pointed out more than once that the work had no connection to tragedy. That would be the end of the story, but with Brahms, you never know whether he is serious or joking. Let's put our faith in him this time.
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| Johannes Brahms, c. 1880 (1833 - 1897) |
Even today, scholars still disagree about the tragedy – personal or drawn from literature – that would have led the composer to title the work that way. In a letter to his publisher, Brahms suggests the words "dramatic", "tragic," or "tragedy," but adds that none of these adjectives satisfies him. It seems a matter of marketing. Moreover, the composer himself is known to have pointed out more than once that the work had no connection to tragedy. That would be the end of the story, but with Brahms, you never know whether he is serious or joking. Let's put our faith in him this time.
As for Bad Ischl, the spa town that witnessed his creation, let us add that Brahms returned to it on two more occasions, in the summers of 1882 and 1889. In the latter year, the daughter of Johann Strauss II approached him asking him to sign her fan. Brahms scrawled on it the opening bars of The Blue Danube waltz, adding the words "Unfortunately, not by yours truly, Johannes Brahms."
Tragic Overture, in D minor, opus 81
Just over 13 minutes long, it premiered at the Vienna Musikverein on December 26, 1880, with Hans Richter conducting the Vienna Philharmonic.
The performance is by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by the Italian maestro Daniele Gatti.
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