Brahms: Symphony No. 2 - BSO Video Podcast

By the time Brahms completed his 1st Symphony, a work he had struggled to finish for more than two decades, he was at the mid-point of his career. And yet within eight months of the 1st Symphony's premiere in 1876, Brahms was hard at work on his 2nd, which he completed in just a few months. In this video, I explore the factors that informed the composer's long initial struggle with symphonic composition, and the extent to which the creation of his sunny, often joyous 2nd Symphony reflects Brahms' newly-found artistic confidence in the wake of surviving the catharsis of completing his 1st.