Today marks the release of Brahms’s Symphony No. 3, captured live in concerts by Hamburg’s NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra (NDREO) in its iconic hall in February 2020. This represents the most recent in Alan Gilbert’s new series of digital recordings with the orchestra, available from OneGate Media on all major streaming platforms. Since its launch last fall, the series has yielded recordings of Mahler, Ravel, and Unsuk Chin, with works by Bruckner, Rachmaninoff, and Mark-Anthony Turnage to follow.  Gilbert discusses the new release with James Jolly on Gramophone magazine’s monthly podcast, available here.

The music of Johannes Brahms (1833–97) has long held a special place in the life and work of this orchestra and its home city. Brahms was born in Hamburg, and it is there that he received his musical training as a pianist and composer. He wrote his Symphony No. 3, however,  in Wiesbaden, Germany in the summer of 1883. The work was premiered later that year in Vienna by the renowned conductor Hans Richter, who dubbed it “Brahms’ ‘Eroica.’” The influential music critic Eduard Hanslick said, “Many music lovers will prefer the titanic force of [Brahms’s] First Symphony; others, the untroubled charm of the Second, but the Third strikes me as being artistically the most nearly perfect.”

Meanwhile, Gilbert and the NDREO continue their spring season with live performances of Berg’s Wozzeck, Dutilleux’s Second Symphony, a Kayhan Kalhor world premiere, and more, in Hamburg and beyond. Visit the calendar section of this website for details and programs.