Academic Festival Overture - Brahms (1833-1897)

For those who find Brahms' music unapproachable, serious or too heavy, the Academic Festival Overture with its wit, rich harmonies, melodic invention and compactness should come as a pleasant surprise. At the time of its writing, Brahms had established an importance in musical life fully recognised by the awards, knighthoods, gold medals and honorary presidencies showered upon his sturdy shoulders. Any idea that he would write an intellectual piece as a thank you for the Doctorate bestowed on him by the University of Breslau in 1879 was dispelled by a jovial overture which he himself called "a boisterous potpourri of student songs". This tribute to university life shows that Brahms' sympathy lay with the repressed students rather than academia. A contemporary report of the first performance, conducted by the composer, reveals that some members of the faculty were dismayed by the music's apparent disregard for the standing of the university.

A tightly constructed introduction leads to a quiet brass and woodwind rendering of "We have built a stately house" soon followed by the more lyrical "The father of our country". A change of mood presents the freshman song "What's coming from on high" and the piece ends in high old style with a broad statement of one of the most popular student songs "Gaudeamus igitur" ("Let us rejoice scholar"), the unofficial anthem of German student protests against police harassment.

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