So much for Richter and Hanslick. Joachim discovered a different heroism in the finale—nothing less than the valiant fable of those antique lovers, Hero and Leander! The second subject, in C major, with its rhythmic conflict between four quarter notes to the measure and two groups of triplets, he identified with the ardent swimmer battling victoriously against the waves of the Hellespont.
Another view of the work is taken by Clara Schumann. She called it a “forest idyl,” saying specifically of the second movement: “I feel as though I were watching the worshippers round a little woodland chapel, the rippling of the brooklet, the play of beetles and gnats—there is such a swarming and whispering round about that one feels all surrounded with the joys of nature.”
The first movement (Allegro con brio, F major, 6-4) begins with a motto theme which at once suggests its heroic character and recurs frequently. It consists of three great ascending chords for horns, trumpets, and woodwind, the top voice of which, F, A-flat, F, is said to be emblematic of the “Frei aber froh” (“Free but happy”) that Brahms had chosen as his personal motto. These three notes are then used immediately as the bass against which the real first subject comes streaming downwards in the violins.
The second subject, in A major, is of a gracefully lyric quality. Just before it enters there is an apparent allusion to the Venusberg scene in “Tannhäuser”—“Naht euch dem Strande, naht euch dem Lande”—which Hugo Riemann insists is an intentional tribute to Wagner, who died while the symphony was taking shape in Brahms’s mind.
The second movement (Andante, C major, 4-4) opens with a hymnlike theme, giving out by clarinets and bassoons, which hints at a prayer heard in the overture and again in the finale of Herold’s opera “Zampa.”
A second theme, in G major, with its typical Brahmsian octaves and its air of hushed mystery, sustains Mme. Schumann’s woodland comparison.