Instrumental music from Götterdämmerung

Through his music dramas, Wagner proclaimed himself the successor to Beethoven and his monumental Ninth Symphony. Brahms, on the other hand, continued to develop the wordless symphony, in which orchestral expression takes center stage. He extends this approach in his Second Piano Concerto—a work often described as a “symphony with soloist.” The interplay between pianist Garrick Ohlsson and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra reveals how both piano and orchestra are given a shining role. Brahms composed this concerto in the late 19th century, near the end of his career. The same is true for Wagner, who concluded his Ring Cycle with Götterdämmerung. Conductor Michael Sanderling lets the orchestra shine in several impressive passages. Wagner’s music—visionary, overwhelming, inescapable—resounds here as an echo of both an ending and a beginning.