Brahms Symphonies and Concerti

[Ferbose]

Several posts have already given Alsop's #1 thumbs down, but I have to disagree.

Alsop takes #1 much lighter than other conductors, and a good contrast is Karajan's recording. Their approaches are so different that I have a hard time recognizing that they are conducting the same piece.
Alsop's phrasing is so meticulous that she fully exposes Brahm's immaculate attention to orchestration details. After listening to Alsop's recording, I realize why it took Brahms some twenty years to compose the piece, and how he must have painstakingly edited even the smallest details. In Karajan's recording, these details are glossed over, as Karajan imposes his personal macho and overdrives the piece.

I have never heard of an orchestral recording that is more trasnparent in texture, more articulate in phrasing, or more purposeful in musical intentions. It is as if in every passage Alsop has something to say, and she wants to say it clearly. This is by no means a run-of-the-mill recording of yet another Brahms symphony. Bravo!

 

[Bunnyears]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doc Sarvis Just received the Haitink/"LSO Live" SACD of Brahms 4 from yourmusic.com ($5.99 of course). I must say its a very nice recording sonics-wise - I haven't heard it enough to have an opinion on the interpretation yet, but sonically it's certainly worth the six bucks! (I have seen the "LSO Live" stuff take a beating on this board from time to time, and I resisted as a result. Now I'm not so sure...)

Got the Haitinck Brahms as well but haven't had a chance to listen.

Ferbose,

How does Alsop compare to Wand who is my current favorite for Brahms symphonies?

 

[scottder]

Febrose,

If you enjoyed her 1st, then her 2nd is a no-brainer. Both are "interesting" for me, but certainly not tops in my book.

For another "different take" try Mackerras, he uses smaller forces for his Brahms, and it gives a wonderful insight as well into Brahms inner workings:

 

[Mark from HFR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doc Sarvis Just received the Haitink/"LSO Live" SACD of Brahms 4 from yourmusic.com ($5.99 of course). I must say its a very nice recording sonics-wise - I haven't heard it enough to have an opinion on the interpretation yet, but sonically it's certainly worth the six bucks! (I have seen the "LSO Live" stuff take a beating on this board from time to time, and I resisted as a result. Now I'm not so sure...)

Hey, Doc! I have this one too, and it's good, though it hasn't struck me so far as being anywhere near the greatest performances of Brahms 4. The sound is very nice, though. I have bought a lot of the LSO Live recordings, and they've made an evolution in these few years that they've been around. They started off making brutally accurate recordings of problematic hall. These were the recordings which got the nasty reviews, although anyone who has experience listening to an orchestra in a dry concert hall will be able to adjust to the sound easily enough. A year or two in, work was done to improve the hall's acoustics. So they progressed to making accurate recordings of a hall with decent sound. In the last year or so, it sounds like they have very abandoned plain accuracy in order to use (albeit very artfully and discreetly) some of the technological tricks available to engineers, such as reverb. In the wrong hands, processing can be (and so often is) horribly overdone, but they are doing it right at LSO Live, actually making the recordings sound better than the performance ever could inside Barbican Hall.

 

[Kevin Sinnott]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daycart1 I've got those K. Sanderling Eurodisc recordings on vinyl--they are indeed very nice.

Yes, my very first Brahms purchase was Sanderling's on RCA. Beautiful vinyl. Played gorgeous. The sound still holds up.

 

[mbhaub]

Its interesting to compare Kurt Sanderling's Brahms with his son's view. Thomas's set on Darpo, in a most stupidly packaged manner, is riveting, dramatic, and played in a very traditional style: not unlike dad's. But the sound is very much better. Best of all, it's dirt cheap -- I guess no one liked the packaging and dumped then at Berkshire.

 

[Masolino]

Local record shops are running a special on Virgin titles (2fers $5 each).
I picked up the Brahms concerti recorded by Stephen Hough/BBC Symphony/Andrew Davis, and thought the Rubens on the cover was not the only pretty thing here. As I have heard in comments elsewhere, Hough plays very articulately, with more varieties in touch, tempi and phrasing than in many other cases (at least those I have heard). In the case of no. 1 (which I happen to have a partitur score), Hough is probably among those who follow the composer's instructions most precisely. The orchestral contribution is adequate if not oustanding at all (but not intrusive either). People who insist on "definitive" or "solid" interpretations should probably avoid the set, as Hough's playing sometimes borders on being delicate or playful, but I have had enough "magistral," stuffy Brahms pc's already! Like his Rachmaninov recordings, Hough's Brahms concerti obviously will not please all (Is that why his name has not once appeared in this thread?

) but they work for me, and the budget pricing certainly doesn't hurt either.

 

[Bunnyears]

Hi Masolino,

I am one of the few people around here who likes Hough's Rachmaninov so this is definitely something I'm going to pick up. Also, do you know anything about his recording of Brahms Piano Sonata/Ballades (Hyperion)?

 

[Masolino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bunnyears Hi Masolino, I am one of the few people around here who likes Hough's Rachmaninov so this is definitely something I'm going to pick up. Also, do you know anything about his recording of Brahms Piano Sonata/Ballades (Hyperion)?

Dear Bunnyears,

I don't have the Sonata/Ballades disc but, in view of Hyperion's
recent legal (and financial) plight, should probably invest on it to
help save the company which has done so much for music lovers
like us.

To my ears, many performers present Brahms as a most stoic or
(fill in any other traditionally "male" virtue here) composer, and so
often render his music monochromatic and unappealing. Hough
apparently is not one of them.

 

[Bunnyears]

Dear Masolino,

It would be a pity if Hyperion went belly-up, so I probably will pick up the sonata recording along with the concertos. As an admirer of Hough I suspect that I will enjoy it.

 

[Doc Sarvis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark from HFR Hey, Doc! I have this one too, and it's good, though it hasn't struck me so far as being anywhere near the greatest performances of Brahms 4. The sound is very nice, though. I have bought a lot of the LSO Live recordings, and they've made an evolution in these few years that they've been around. They started off making brutally accurate recordings of problematic hall. These were the recordings which got the nasty reviews, although anyone who has experience listening to an orchestra in a dry concert hall will be able to adjust to the sound easily enough. A year or two in, work was done to improve the hall's acoustics. So they progressed to making accurate recordings of a hall with decent sound. In the last year or so, it sounds like they have very abandoned plain accuracy in order to use (albeit very artfully and discreetly) some of the technological tricks available to engineers, such as reverb. In the wrong hands, processing can be (and so often is) horribly overdone, but they are doing it right at LSO Live, actually making the recordings sound better than the performance ever could inside Barbican Hall.

So mark, what are your favorite LSO Lives?

 

[Mark from HFR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doc Sarvis So mark, what are your favorite LSO Lives?

Doc,

I should say (so I don't get completely off topic) that the Haitink Brahms discs are solid and enjoyable and pretty well recorded, but they are conservative approaches. Some of the earlier recordings, such as Sir Colin Davis' Berlioz cycle were in the then dry sound of the Barbican Centre, but then again, if any composer wrote with a dry acoustic in mind, it was Berlioz. (Listen, for example, to Gardiner's recording of the Symphonie Fantastique, recorded in the hall that Berlioz most often worked in.) Davis Elgar cycle featured good records in better sound, after the hall improvements. After that, some titles have featured even better sound-- The Jansons Mahler 6 SACD is lithe and quicksilver, though kind of lightweight. My favorite to date, though, has been Rostropovich's Shostakovich 8th, which moves LSO Live up onto a new sonic plane. Plus it is very interesting because it is a broader, more inexorable reading than Rostropovich's Teldec recording.

Mark

 

[scottder]

I picke up the Brahms 4 by Haitink, and pretty much agree with what has been said so far. The performance is Ok, the sound is quite good. Solid all around!

 

[SoundsGood]

Has anyone heard any of these recordings of the Brahms Symphonies? I have not heard much by Suitner, but that which I've heard, I've liked quite a bit. His set of Dvorak Symphonies is supposed to be top notch, and a bargain at like $18 for the set.

Otmar Suitner/Staatskapelle Berlin/Berlin Classics

 

[Tyson]

Does anyone else feel that Brahm's 2 piano concerto's are perhaps the greatest ever written? I've been listening to them for quite a long time and to me they are the most perfect integration between piano and orchestra I've heard, with only a couple of Mozart PC's giving any competition. In most other composers concerto's I can listen to them and enjoy the pianist even if the accompaniment is not up to snuff, and to an extent the converse is true as well. But not with Brahms. I find that the music is so interweaved, so tightly integrated, that if both pianist and conductor are not on top form, it all ends up a big mess. But with both are on top form, I've not heard much music that is more passionate, intense, noble, and sublime.