Johannes Brahms is one of my favorite Romantic composers, so when I saw that San Diego Symphony was having a 4-day Brahms Festival at the Jacobs Music Center, I made plans to attend one of the performances. We opted for Saturday evening when Artistic Director Rafael Payare was conducting Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 and No. 2. Seeing these two pillars of the orchestral repertoire paired together promised an evening of deep emotional range and technical mastery.
The contrast between the two pieces was captivating. Payare led the orchestra through the First Symphony’s brooding turbulence with intense energy, while the Second’s pastoral warmth offered a nuanced, sunlit shift. If the First was an arduous mountain climb, the Second was a breath of fresh air.
This magical evening was the perfect crescendo to a short overnight journey that included hiking through Annie’s Canyon Trail in Encinitas and lunch with an old friend.
