Beethoven’s symphonies cast a long shadow, paralysing many composers during the course of the 19th century, because both audience and critics were wont to compare their works to the inimitable predecessor. Premiered in 1883, Brahms’s Symphony No. 3, for example, is usually contrasted with Eroica, composed some eighty years before; yet the Eroica’s ambitious hero is barely reminiscent of the ‘hero’ of Brahms’s work, who seems to be gnawing at himself rather than the enemy. It is no accident then that every movement in the symphony ends in gloomy silence, and the third movement is not the customary scherzo but a ‘second slow movement’, and a profoundly melancholic one at that. Further analysis reveals that during the work the basic F-major key frequently transforms into the minor key, casting a gloomy shadow over the entire symphony. However, Brahms kept the most resigned gesture for the closing bars of what is a seemingly lusty finale when reminiscences of the opening movement float about and the listener is forced to concede that having made four movements’ worth of effort, the ‘hero’ has barely budged from the starting point.