Bertrand de Billy conducts Brahms

It took Johannes Brahms twenty-one years to complete his first symphony, but the wait for its successor was much shorter.
He wrote his Symphony no. 2 in the summer of 1877, during a visit to an Austrian summer resort, Pörtschach am Wörthersee. The work is upbeat and lively and has sometimes been likened to Beethoven's Symphony no. 6, called the Pastoral. It was enormously well received, prompting influential Austrian critic Eduard Hanslick to say that it “extends its warm sunshine to connoisseurs and laymen alike.”

Bertrand de Billy, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra's Principal Guest Conductor, appears regularly with the world's leading orchestras, as well as conducting in opera houses such as London's Covent Garden, New York's Metropolitan Opera, and the Vienna State Opera. He is also a regular guest at international music festivals, and his repertoire runs the gamut, from Bach to contemporary music and beyond. He began conducting Brahms' four symphonies with the ISO last year and will complete the cycle this season.

The concert is an hour long, with no intermission, and is broadcast live on RÚV.