[Brahms, Johannes. (1833–1897)] [Dvorák, Antonín Leopold . (1841 - 1904)] [Becker, Hugo. (1863–1941)]
1897 Concert Program from the Last Concert Brahms Attended
Concert program from the March 7, 1897 performance of the Vienna Philharmonic, notable as the last time Brahms heard his own music in public. The orchestra, under Hans Richter, performed Brahms' Symphony no. 4, Dvorak's Cello Concerto with cello Hugo Becker, and Haydn's Symphony no. 5. Single-sheet program with some light toning, but overall fine. 5.75 x 9.25 inches (14.9 x 23.4 cm).Brahms, about a month before his death, was present to hear his last symphony performed, and the audience were aware of his poor health as he rose to accept applause: "Everyone in town had heard the rumor, but for most of the audience it was the first confirmation. Brahms was dying, they could see it all over him. He had risen to acknowledge the applause after each movement of this his last symphony, and everyone had looked up with a shudder, and the grieving had built through the course of the stark, sorrowful work until this explosion at the end. Brahms stood in the box leaning on the balustrade with tears pouring down his face. For once he did not try to hide them. [...] The ovation roared on and on until it became almost unbearable, for the audience and for Brahms. Some of them must have been thinking: this wild hurrah for the Fourth Symphony of all things, which had always been too gloomy and austere for the Viennese. [...] On this night it was not for this symphony they shouted. They cried out for all the music and for the man, for Brahms who was dying, and with him an age." (Jan Swafford, Johannes Brahms: A Biography, pp. 3-4.)
Dvorak's Cello Concerto was also a work closely associated with Brahms: Brahms had corrected the proofs for Dvorak and knew the work intimately from the score. In 1896, Robert Hausmann had played it at his home with Brahms' piano accompaniment, and Brahms is reported as saying: "If I had known that it was possible to compose such a concerto for the cello, I would have tried it myself!" Before the present concert, Brahms reportedly said to his friend Gänsbacher about the concerto: "Today you will hear a real piece, a male piece!" (17455)
Program, unsigned Classical Music