Brahms's Piano Quartet (orch. Schoenberg)

Although his own compositional techniques are considered avant garde, Arnold Schoenberg viewed himself as a direct extension of the German tradition of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms.  He was 22 when Brahms died, and his particular affinity for Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 1 led him to the task of orchestrating the work in 1937.  In a letter to the San Francisco Symphony’s program annotator, he stated his reasons: he liked it, it was seldom played, and he wanted to be able to hear all the parts.  He vowed to remain strictly within Brahms’ style and to use only elements he believed Brahms would have; the results are a work that is a co-authorship of peers.

Brahms's German Requiem

Although not a conventionally religious man, Johannes Brahms knew his Bible well and assembled the text for his German Requiem himself, choosing passages that suited his means perfectly. By titling it the German Requiem, Brahms meant that it was for the German people, in a language that they could understand—he also mentioned in his letters an alternate title of the Human Requiem.  Although technically a mass for the dead, the work does not mention death until the penultimate movement, and even then addresses the living with a sense of reassured faith rather than anxiety.

Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" (arr. Mahler)

Years before there was Photoshop, there was Gustav Mahler, and his infamous "retouchings" of respected scores to bring them up to modern listening standards. Known in his day more as a conductor than a composer, Mahler would make revisions to the music he was performing—an instrument added here, a note changed there—ideas that were not always popular with listeners. However, in the case of Schubert’s Quartet in D Minor, Death and the Maiden, a theme and variations on his lieder of the same name, the work definitely remains more Schubert’s. Mahler reinforced the bass line, changed double stops into rich string textures, and brought this intimate chamber work into the large concert hall. This podcast uses a recording of the original quartet, performed by SFS musicians Sarn Oliver and Amy Hiraga, violins; Nanci Severance, viola; and Peter Wyrick, cello.

Verdi's Requiem

In mid-nineteenth century Italy, Alessandro Manzoni, a poet and humanist, was one of the central figures in Italian cultural life.  Not only was he a great writer, but he had been elected to the first Senate of the new Kingdom of Italy in 1861. Upon his death, in 1873, the country entered a period of national mourning.  Giuseppe Verdi, having not yet written much of anything other than opera, volunteered his services to compose a Requiem mass.  He offered the public not a strictly liturgical work but a concert piece, and it was greeted with applause both at its premiere in Milan’s St. Marco Cathedral and at its second performance, three days later, at La Scala.

Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition

Originally composed for solo piano (and later orchestrated by Ravel), Pictures at an Exhibition was written by Modest Mussorgsky after he visited a retrospective exhibit of the works of his friend Victor Hartmann.  The collection of pieces represents a promenade from painting to painting, pausing in front of works called The Gnome, Ancient Castle, and Great Gate of Kiev.  Mussorgsky was a member of a nationalistic, anti-conservatory group of young musicians, and he had an unusual ability to interpret visual art in musical expression.

Elgar's Symphony No. 1

Born the son of a piano tuner and educated by playing in and conducting small amateur bands (including that of the Worcester Pauper Lunatic Asylum), Sir Edward Elgar had already written the Enigma variations, four Pomp and Circumstance marches, and the oratorio Dream of Gerontius before composing his Symphony No. 1 in 1908 at the age of fifty.  While his colleagues Vaughan Williams and Holst encouraged a return to folk music, Elgar’s Symphony No. 1 pushed English music into the romanticism of the rest of the European community, and earned Elgar the nickname “the English Mahler.”

Mahler Symphony No. 3

In summer 1895, Gustav Mahler went on vacation.  He’d had a busy year conducting in Hamburg, and went to his cabin to do what he always did in his free time—compose.  He outlined a program for his new work—Pan’s awakening, the Bacchic entrance of summer—but leaves the movement titles out of the program.  In this Symphony No. 3, the largest and longest in the current symphonic repertoire, he leaves the story up to the listener—according to Mahler, “you just have to bring along ears and a heart and—not least—willingly surrender to the rhapsodist.”