While much has been written about the pressure Brahms felt to compose a symphony – no doubt exacerbated by Robert Schumann comparing him directly to Beethoven – once Brahms released his Symphony No. 1, the Second was completed within a year of the First. In a letter to his publisher, Franz Simrock, about the Second, we may even have a glimpse of some of Brahms’ sense of humor. “The new symphony is so melancholy that you can’t stand it. I have never written anything so sad, so minorish: the score must appear with a black border.” Brahms is surely joking here, because his Symphony No. 2 is bright in character and wholly idyllic. His colleague, conductor Hans Von Bülow dubbed Brahms’ first symphony “Beethoven’s tenth” and would go on to call the Second “Brahms’ Pastoral” in reference to Beethoven’s famous Symphony No. 6. Shades of turmoil – melodies fragmenting, working together and against one another, rhythmic interruptions – appear alongside extraordinary gentleness, absolute serenity, and, at the close, a finale so triumphant, it fills your very soul with dazzling light.