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London Symphony Orchestra: Half Six Fix – Brahms

with Sir Simon Rattle

Photo of Sir Simon Rattle conducting the London Symphony Orchestra in the Barbican Hall

Kick-start your evening with a 60-minute Half Six Fix concert. Introduced by the performers, with screens in the hall to bring you closer to the action.

Brahms’ Symphony No 4 was subtitled ‘Tragic’, yet it is vigorous and full of warm orchestral colours. At the premiere, the Duke of Meiningen asked Brahms to encore the first and third movements – a guest remarked that Brahms conducted them with ‘even greater fire.’  

The opening is often called a ‘sigh’, a yearning figure which ‘sighs’ across the whole movement. The slow movement is peaceful with a gentle melancholy, while the third bristles with a madcap energy. In the finale Brahms builds to a solemn, yet fiery conclusion. 

Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO know the Brahms symphonies inside out. They draw out the composer’s particular brand of solemn vigour from start to finish. 

This performance will end at approximately 7.30pm (timings subject to change).

Produced by the London Symphony Orchestra

Hall