Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Mainz Philharmonic State Orchestra conducted by Hermann Bäumer.
I - In Bondage. Allegro ma non troppo: 0:00
II - Miriam's Song. Molto adagio: 11:23
III - The Escape. Molto vivace: 19:49
IV - Freedom; Songs of Victory and Joy. Allegro con brio - Un poco meno - Con brio (Tempo I) - Tranquillo - Con brio - Un poco meno - Con brio - Più mosso: 23:45
Gernsheim's Symphony No.3 was composed between the Spring and Summer of 1887. It was premiered in a Rotterdam on January 13 of 1888, during the composer’s tenure as Music Director of the city’s Philharmonic Society. The work was very well-received, and proved to be the most successful of Gernsheim's Symphonies. Two months later, the success was repeated in a concert of Hans von Bülow’s in Berlin. Responding enthusiastically to Gernsheim's participation in a Berlin performance of his Second («Resurrection») Symphony in 1895, Gustav Mahler offered to perform Gernsheim's third, a plan that was probably never realized. No less a figure than Richard Strauss honoured the composer on his seventy-fifth birthday by performing this symphony in a Berlin concert of the Royal Orchestra.
Gernsheim was a conservative composer and a friend of Johannes Brahms, to whom he is frequently compared. They met on 1862 and both shared their disregard for program music and lack of interest in opera. Gernsheim had learned much from Brahms, especially in his manner of working out thematic content and, to a lesser extent, in his manner of orchestration. However, his music also successfully melds together echoes of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Spohr, Schubert and (of course) Brahms into a convincing style of his own. Notable is the subtle but clear incorporation of a French influence from Saint-Saëns, with whom Gernsheim became friends during his years of study in Paris between 1855-60.
The Third Symphony is unique among Gernsheim’s instrumental works in having an extra-musical program. In an article written for the Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums (General Journal of Jewry), the composer related how while studying composition at the Leipzig Conservatory in 1853, he was profoundly impacted by a performance of Handel's "Israel in Egypt". He was particularly drawn to the figure of Miriam, the prophetess and sister of Aaron, who sang the song of the sea: a hymn of praise to God after the crossing the Red Sea in safety, which celebrates their freedom after generations of slavery and oppression by the Egyptians. For decades, Gernsheim remembered this concert experience and it served as inspiration for the symphony.
The Torah refers to her as "Miriam the Prophetess" and the Talmud names her as one of the seven major female prophets of Israel. Scripture describes her alongside of Moses and Aaron as delivering the Jews from exile in Egypt: "For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam". According to the Midrash, just as Moses led the men out of Egypt and taught them Torah, so too Miriam led the women and taught them Torah. Like Beethoven's famous Pastoral Symphony, Gernsheim's Third aims to depict a series of moods, but not strictly narrate a story like in Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.
The first movement, subtitled "In der Knechtschaft" (In Bondage), is structured in sonata form, depicting the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt, suffering under slavery with occasional flashes of light and hope. It begins with a sinuous, melancholic introduction dominated by the wood, introducing motives that are the basis of the movement. The main allegro begins with a stormy and passionate main theme in C minor, with a more melodic central passage. A desperate, fortissisimo climax is reached, which leads to the melancholic second theme, which grows into a second fortissisimo climax but in a major key and a hopeful tone. The development begins with the return of the introduction material, leading to a dramatic series of modulation, reaching a third fortissisimo climax. A transition leads to the recapitulations of the material, with references to the introduction. The second theme is in C major, leading to a brilliant peak before returning to C minor. A forceful and dramatic coda ends the allegro.
[Musical analysis continued in the comments section].
Picture: "Miriam's Song of Praise" (1836) by the German painter Wilhelm Hensel.
Musical analysis written by myself. Sources: tinyurl.com/2cuhp2q7 and tinyurl.com/28avmsjy
To check the score: tinyurl.com/23r52syl
Mainz Philharmonic State Orchestra conducted by Hermann Bäumer.
I - In Bondage. Allegro ma non troppo: 0:00
II - Miriam's Song. Molto adagio: 11:23
III - The Escape. Molto vivace: 19:49
IV - Freedom; Songs of Victory and Joy. Allegro con brio - Un poco meno - Con brio (Tempo I) - Tranquillo - Con brio - Un poco meno - Con brio - Più mosso: 23:45
Gernsheim's Symphony No.3 was composed between the Spring and Summer of 1887. It was premiered in a Rotterdam on January 13 of 1888, during the composer’s tenure as Music Director of the city’s Philharmonic Society. The work was very well-received, and proved to be the most successful of Gernsheim's Symphonies. Two months later, the success was repeated in a concert of Hans von Bülow’s in Berlin. Responding enthusiastically to Gernsheim's participation in a Berlin performance of his Second («Resurrection») Symphony in 1895, Gustav Mahler offered to perform Gernsheim's third, a plan that was probably never realized. No less a figure than Richard Strauss honoured the composer on his seventy-fifth birthday by performing this symphony in a Berlin concert of the Royal Orchestra.
Gernsheim was a conservative composer and a friend of Johannes Brahms, to whom he is frequently compared. They met on 1862 and both shared their disregard for program music and lack of interest in opera. Gernsheim had learned much from Brahms, especially in his manner of working out thematic content and, to a lesser extent, in his manner of orchestration. However, his music also successfully melds together echoes of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Spohr, Schubert and (of course) Brahms into a convincing style of his own. Notable is the subtle but clear incorporation of a French influence from Saint-Saëns, with whom Gernsheim became friends during his years of study in Paris between 1855-60.
The Third Symphony is unique among Gernsheim’s instrumental works in having an extra-musical program. In an article written for the Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums (General Journal of Jewry), the composer related how while studying composition at the Leipzig Conservatory in 1853, he was profoundly impacted by a performance of Handel's "Israel in Egypt". He was particularly drawn to the figure of Miriam, the prophetess and sister of Aaron, who sang the song of the sea: a hymn of praise to God after the crossing the Red Sea in safety, which celebrates their freedom after generations of slavery and oppression by the Egyptians. For decades, Gernsheim remembered this concert experience and it served as inspiration for the symphony.
The Torah refers to her as "Miriam the Prophetess" and the Talmud names her as one of the seven major female prophets of Israel. Scripture describes her alongside of Moses and Aaron as delivering the Jews from exile in Egypt: "For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam". According to the Midrash, just as Moses led the men out of Egypt and taught them Torah, so too Miriam led the women and taught them Torah. Like Beethoven's famous Pastoral Symphony, Gernsheim's Third aims to depict a series of moods, but not strictly narrate a story like in Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.
The first movement, subtitled "In der Knechtschaft" (In Bondage), is structured in sonata form, depicting the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt, suffering under slavery with occasional flashes of light and hope. It begins with a sinuous, melancholic introduction dominated by the wood, introducing motives that are the basis of the movement. The main allegro begins with a stormy and passionate main theme in C minor, with a more melodic central passage. A desperate, fortissisimo climax is reached, which leads to the melancholic second theme, which grows into a second fortissisimo climax but in a major key and a hopeful tone. The development begins with the return of the introduction material, leading to a dramatic series of modulation, reaching a third fortissisimo climax. A transition leads to the recapitulations of the material, with references to the introduction. The second theme is in C major, leading to a brilliant peak before returning to C minor. A forceful and dramatic coda ends the allegro.
[Musical analysis continued in the comments section].
Picture: "Miriam's Song of Praise" (1836) by the German painter Wilhelm Hensel.
Musical analysis written by myself. Sources: tinyurl.com/2cuhp2q7 and tinyurl.com/28avmsjy
To check the score: tinyurl.com/23r52syl
