Symphony no. 2 in D major, op. 73

Brahms wrote the Second Symphony in the summer of 1877 at Pörtschach on the Wörthersee, in a few months — against the fifteen years the First had taken. Hans Richter conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in the premiere on 30 December 1877, after the date had been moved because the orchestra was busy rehearsing Wagner's Das Rheingold. The reception was immediate. Brahms, however, wrote to his publisher that the symphony was melancholy and that he had never written anything so mournful; over the opening theme in the manuscript he set a line of Heine about spring. In early December he gathered a few friends at Friedrich Ehrbar's salon in Vienna and played the new symphony through with Ignaz Brüll, piano four hands. Simrock published the score in August 1878. Eduard Hanslick found it full of new thoughts from beginning to end, and took it as evidence for the vitality of instrumental music against Wagner's claims.