Vexierbild. Kontrafaktur mit Brahms

The work is a companion piece to Brahms’s Symphony No. 3. Brahms has long been a major source of inspiration for Glanert. Vexierbild is the latest in a series of companion pieces to Brahms’s four symphonies, following Brahms-Fantasie (2011-12), Weites Land (Open Land) (2013), and Idyllium (2018-19), which were written as companion pieces to the first, fourth, and second symphonies, respectively. Vexierbild, or Hidden Image, depicts the mystery surrounding Brahms's Symphony No. 3. Glanert states, “It came out of nowhere; nobody has any information about when he started it or was even thinking about it.” The subtitle Contrafactum with Brahms references creating new music from old. While heavily influenced by Brahms, Glanert avoids direct quotations in his work, instead focusing on Brahmsian gestures, figures, motifs, and structural qualities. Glanert’s inspiration is drawn from Brahms’s “ideas and his inner material, but it’s my own Brahms,” he states.