Johannes Brahms will be playing a key role in the Budapest Festival Orchestra's coming season: in the months of September and May, all four of the composer's symphonies are to be heard under the baton of Iván Fischer. It is somewhat startling how late in his life - aged 43 - Brahms finished work on his 1st Symphony, and how quickly afterwards - over the span of a decade - he would write all four masterpieces. His 3rd Symphony, which was finished in 1883, was a middle course: a transition between the sunny and cheerful second and the solemn fourth. The first three movements evoke the world of Viennese classicism, followed by a closing movement that is romantic to its core and in every sense. The work - like the 2nd Symphony before it - was premiered by the Vienna Philharmonic with Hans Richter conducting.

Brahms started to write his 4th Symphony in the summer of 1884, finishing it in 1885. "Just a few entr'actes which I happened to have lying about... which together are usually called a symphony […] I often imagined nicely and comfortably trying it out with all of you, and I still do, but I wonder whether it will attract a wider audience. I am afraid […], it takes after the climate in this region - the cherries do not ripen here,” wrote Brahms to his friend, Hans von Bülow, the conductor of the world premiere, the success of which in October 1885 was to allay the composer's fears.

Presented by: Budapest Festival Orchestra, Palace of Arts