Aside from the composers of theatrical works, Brahms is the only name in the NSO's repertory this season to be honored with an entire program devoted exclusively to his music. We'll hear his lyrical, bucolic Second Symphony, his Third Symphony (the only one in the standard repertory whose all four movements end quietly), and the sublime Alto Rhapsody, music of heartbreaking beauty composed in response to the composer's learning that a women with whom he was secretly in love had married another. An alto soloist sings words depicting a lonely, bitter man, lost to the world, wandering through the snowy mountains in search of solace.