Saturday at the Symphony Evening Concert

Welcome to the weekend and your Saturday at the Symphony Evening Concert.  Your program this evening features three of the greats of the Classical Music world.  When you think of cities with great orchestras, many come to mind, New York, London, Cleveland or Chicago.  However the distinction of having what is often considered by many to be the finest orchestra in the world belongs to Vienna.  The Vienna Philharmonic is one of the oldest and most reputable orchestras in the world. Their home since 1870 in the Goldener Hall at the Musikverien in Vienna is also considered to be one of the best venues for a concert performance.  Tonight's performance is a recording of a live 1981 performance at Goldener Hall.   

The second element of tonight's performance is of course the Conductor.  For this we turn to the legendary Leonard Bernstein,  Bernstein is also considered the best composer/conductor of his time.  Which brings us to the third great thing about tonight's performance, the Music itself.  Leonard Bernstein conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in its 1981 performance of Symphony Number 1 in C Major, Opus 68 by Johannes Brahms.  

Brahms was a German composer and pianist born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family.  Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. In his lifetime, Brahms's popularity and influence were considerable. He is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs", a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow. Brahms composed for piano, chamber ensembles, symphony orchestra, and for voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works; he worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire including tonight's featured work.  You may also hear Bernstein and the VPO over on my tumblr with their 1982 performance of Brahm's Symphony Number 2 in D Major, Opus 73.  The VPO was also the orchestra who premiered Symphony Number 2 in this same venue in 1877.

Of course beautiful Music must be accompanied by beautiful Art, of which you will find an abundance on display below the video.  These photographs all exude a sensuality unique unto themselves as they reveal the subjects of the portraits who are all Naked or Nearly So.  Addition beauty au natural may be viewed on my tumblr when you check out Yasiel Fleites, Your Hottie of the Day!.  Thank you for stopping in on a Saturday night, see you again on Monday when we gather once again for another week of Music, Men & More!  Until next time as always, Enjoy!