Johannes Brahms was one of the romantic period's most conflicted musical characters, and his symphonies are the perfect way to find out why... The image of Brahms the curmudgeon with his hands firmly ...

Audio for this feature is no longer available. The album was released on Oct. 6, 2009. "It's an unkickable drug habit. And I'm happy to be a junkie until the end of my days." So says 54-year-old ...

BOSTON - The music or the musicians? What makes a great classical music concert? You need to have captivating music for a memorable concert. But you also need musicians performing at their peak for a ...

Two new faces and some remarkable music: The Seattle Symphony offered inspiring performances in the first of two concerts led by conductor David Zinman. It seems odd to consider Zinman (who turns 80 ...

One of the best features of Tuesday’s music-making was the old-fashioned layout of the orchestra. With the violins divided and cellos, basses, and violas in the middle, they had an outsized weight and ...

Johannes Brahms is not known for his sense of humour, but his Second Symphony is downright funny. Its lilting themes and exuberant turns have given it a reputation as a "pastoral" symphony (the kind ...

As you listen to this richly Romantic symphony, you get a real sense that Brahms had very much hit his stride as a composer. It had taken until he was well into his forties before he felt able to ...

A photo of Brahms from 1876, the year he composed his "Symphony no. 1", taken from his personal photo collection. Led by Sir Gilbert Levine, the concert celebrated the canonization of two recent Popes ...

The character of the Fourth Symphony has been described as autumnal. Even if it weren't the last of Brahms' symphonies, the description would fit, for surely none of the others presents the same ...

Do you like the opening of Brahms’s Third Symphony to be played with gutsy thrust and blaze and bite? If so, there’s a fair chance that you may find this new account by Iván Fischer and his Budapest ...