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Research dossier · Arts & Letters

Hamburger Concerto

music album by the band Focus (1974)

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ1537237 ↗
Source-derived summary

Hamburger Concerto is the fourth studio album by the Dutch progressive rock band Focus, released in May 1974. It peaked at No. 20 on the UK charts. The title track is based on Variations on a Theme by Haydn by Johannes Brahms. The composition also incorporates the first two verses of the Dutch Christmas carol O Kerstnacht, schoner dan de dagen at around 15 minutes, and the Third Quarter chime from the Westminster Quarters is quoted in the track's final seconds. The first track is based on a galliard of Joachim van den Hove, Delitiae Musicae.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Hamburger Concerto” as music album by the band Focus (1974). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1974—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1974. The account is most persuasive where Hamburger, Concerto and music can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as music album by the band Focus (1974). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1537237. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1974.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Hamburger Concerto”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Hamburger Concerto primary sources, Hamburger Concerto archive and Hamburger research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Hamburger Concerto”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Hamburger Concerto” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.