Brahms came of age in the Romantic era, but chose to go against the tide, looking back to the age of classicism. His Symphony No.1 is a worthy successor to Beethoven, journeying “from darkness to light” and battling fate. Yet one cannot but detect the symphony’s romantic underpinnings in drama, tension and color. The Concerto for Violin and Cello is at once graceful and intimate, heroic and grand. Brahms created music that combine the two soloists with the orchestra in a characteristic touch typical of Brahms’s late period: a smooth-flowing texture that is lofty and refined.