LDV94

GEOFFROY COUTEAU ∙ ORCHESTRE NATIONAL DE METZ 17 The finale, Rondo (Allegro ma non troppo), miraculously succeeds in dispelling the desolate mood of most of what has come before. It unfolds a swaggering refrain with Dionysian variations of inextinguishable joy whose inspiration seems to grow irresistibly until the end. ‘All joy desires eternity – desires deep, deep eternity’, says Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, and Brahms is in unison with him here. A wild, rustic joy (nature is in fact the subject of the first and third movements of the concerto), almost dancelike, which with each return of the theme engenders further variants with the same energy, the same fervour. The influence of Bach and Handel (the Brandenburg Concertos and the Water Music were never far from Brahms’s desk!) is manifest, as witness the marvellous fugato that blends happily and majestically with the bucolic atmosphere of the finale. After the very inward Adagio, Brahms succeeds here in conceiving an ‘open air’ movement brimming with contagious life. It testifies to the young composer’s extraordinary prolixity, his infinite vitality, as expressed in the torrential final cadenza and the extravagant coda that follows, which alone occupy half the movement and close the work in exultation. As we have just seen, throughout his life, Brahms (like Schumann) felt an intimate bond with Bach, with his musical qualities as well his religious dimension; it nourishes his instrumental and vocal output, especially his motets, sacred choruses and organ chorales.