Four Brahms Symphonies.
Posted by: u5227470736789439 on 23 July 2008
Among all the Beethoven and Bach that has come to me in the last couple of months so has some well loved Brahms.
Today a very kind person sent me the Four Symphonies in the American Columbia recording [Columbia Symphony Orchestra] from about 1960 is superb transfers to Sony CDs.
This is a peculiarly circular tale as this is the third time I have had this set, and even twice on CDs!
My LPs, I gave to the library of my junior school when I got the CDs in their first iteration, and then a friend of mine confessed that he could never quite understand Brahms. So I played him the Third Symphony from the CD with Bruno Walter leading. He smiled and said that he had never found Brahms's music sound so inviting! I gave him the "permanent loan" of the Four Symphonies, and he became a Brahms enthusiast and went on to get other performances of the music to stand beside the Walter performances.
Now these return to me, to stand beside recordings from Felix von Weingartner [1938-40, HMV], Otto Klemperer [1957, EMI], Sir Adrian Boult [1954, Pye], Claudio Abbado 1990s, DG], and Sir Charles MacKerras.
Truth to tell I missed these old recordings from Walter in spite of the superb music making to be found in these other sets! Yes, I am very fond of these Symphonies, as the diversity of performances above may show, and yet these Walter performances hold a special place in my heart! An oddity is that I have no free standing single issues in the works. Brahms Cycles are ones that usually work right through!
The point is that I would commend these Walter recordings for anyone wanting to start out on Brahms, and just as much to anyone who thinks they know the music intimately! Walter's wisdom in the music has a very great deal to offer.
The return of these lovely performances to me seems like a sort of poetic kindness. Twice I give them away to people I am very fond of, and now they return as if by a miracle. That seems to show something nice about life, and the best of human nature.
So here is the thought: Would people like to post their favourite Brahms recordings, just for an even greater breadth, of enjoyable top choices.
ATB from George
Today a very kind person sent me the Four Symphonies in the American Columbia recording [Columbia Symphony Orchestra] from about 1960 is superb transfers to Sony CDs.
This is a peculiarly circular tale as this is the third time I have had this set, and even twice on CDs!
My LPs, I gave to the library of my junior school when I got the CDs in their first iteration, and then a friend of mine confessed that he could never quite understand Brahms. So I played him the Third Symphony from the CD with Bruno Walter leading. He smiled and said that he had never found Brahms's music sound so inviting! I gave him the "permanent loan" of the Four Symphonies, and he became a Brahms enthusiast and went on to get other performances of the music to stand beside the Walter performances.
Now these return to me, to stand beside recordings from Felix von Weingartner [1938-40, HMV], Otto Klemperer [1957, EMI], Sir Adrian Boult [1954, Pye], Claudio Abbado 1990s, DG], and Sir Charles MacKerras.
Truth to tell I missed these old recordings from Walter in spite of the superb music making to be found in these other sets! Yes, I am very fond of these Symphonies, as the diversity of performances above may show, and yet these Walter performances hold a special place in my heart! An oddity is that I have no free standing single issues in the works. Brahms Cycles are ones that usually work right through!
The point is that I would commend these Walter recordings for anyone wanting to start out on Brahms, and just as much to anyone who thinks they know the music intimately! Walter's wisdom in the music has a very great deal to offer.
The return of these lovely performances to me seems like a sort of poetic kindness. Twice I give them away to people I am very fond of, and now they return as if by a miracle. That seems to show something nice about life, and the best of human nature.
So here is the thought: Would people like to post their favourite Brahms recordings, just for an even greater breadth, of enjoyable top choices.
ATB from George
I love these four symphonies, and because of that I've ended up with a lot of sets. My favourite cycle is Rudolf Kempe/BPO on Testament. I generally love this conductors broad, lyrical and sweeping style and it works perfectly with Brahms.
The two Bruno Walter cycles I also cherish a lot. His Columbia SO cycle due to his extremely careful phrasing and long lines. The drawback is that there have been more shining orchestras in this repertoire. His NYPO cycle I love due to it's rougher more exciting style. It just works wonders in e.g. the final movement of the 2nd symphony.
I would also add Furtwangler to my absolute favourites, but then I would have to pick performances from different cycles, and I prefer his 50's works.
Other cycles I have are Jochum/LPO, Jochum/BPO, Jansons/Oslo PO, Sanderling/Staatskapelle Dresden, Klemperer/Philharmonia, Giulini/WP, Böhm/WP and Weingartner/LSO. Most of this cycles has somethings of their own to add to the complete picture. Normally I prefer Central European orchestras with a slightly bottom-heavy side in this lovely music, but the conductor is a very important factor shown in Walter's case.
The two Bruno Walter cycles I also cherish a lot. His Columbia SO cycle due to his extremely careful phrasing and long lines. The drawback is that there have been more shining orchestras in this repertoire. His NYPO cycle I love due to it's rougher more exciting style. It just works wonders in e.g. the final movement of the 2nd symphony.
I would also add Furtwangler to my absolute favourites, but then I would have to pick performances from different cycles, and I prefer his 50's works.
Other cycles I have are Jochum/LPO, Jochum/BPO, Jansons/Oslo PO, Sanderling/Staatskapelle Dresden, Klemperer/Philharmonia, Giulini/WP, Böhm/WP and Weingartner/LSO. Most of this cycles has somethings of their own to add to the complete picture. Normally I prefer Central European orchestras with a slightly bottom-heavy side in this lovely music, but the conductor is a very important factor shown in Walter's case.