During its concert tour, the Deutsche Rhein-Philharmonie has performed, among other things, Johannes Brahms’ 3rd Symphony in F Major in Skopje in the beautiful new Philharmonic Hall.
Clara Schumann once said about the symphony:
“What a work, what poetry, the most harmonious mood through the whole, all the movements as if from a single mould, a heartbeat, every movement a jewel! – How one is surrounded from beginning to end by the mysterious magic of forest life! I could not say which movement was my favourite? In the first one I am already enraptured by the glow of the awakened day, how the sun’s rays shine through the trees, everything comes alive, everything breathes cheerfulness, it is blissful! In the second, the pure idyll, I listen to the prayers around the little chapel in the woods, the babbling of the brooks, the play of the beetles and mosquitoes – it is a swarming and whispering around you that makes you feel as if you have been spun into all the bliss of nature. The third movement seems a pearl to me, but it is a grey one, surrounded by a tear of melancholy; at the end the modulation is quite wonderful. The last movement follows wonderfully, with its passionate upsurge: but the excited heart is soon soothed again, finally the transfiguration, which even in the development motif appears in a beauty for which I find no answer”. (Source: Wikipedia)
DEA-Productions recorded the GRP’s performance in Skopje: