Works by Brahms and Mahler
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler
Label: Ottavo
Magazine Review Date: 7/1987
Media Format: Vinyl
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: OTR98402

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(4) Ernste Gesänge, 'Four Serious Songs' |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Golders Orkest Johannes Brahms, Composer Robert Holl, Bass Yoav Talmi, Conductor |
(11) Chorale Preludes, Movement: O Gott, du frommer Gott |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Golders Orkest Johannes Brahms, Composer Yoav Talmi, Conductor |
(11) Chorale Preludes, Movement: Es ist ein Ros entsprungen |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Golders Orkest Johannes Brahms, Composer Yoav Talmi, Conductor |
Blumine |
Gustav Mahler, Composer
Golders Orkest Gustav Mahler, Composer Yoav Talmi, Conductor |
(5) Rückert-Lieder |
Gustav Mahler, Composer
Golders Orkest Gustav Mahler, Composer Jard van Nes, Contralto (Female alto) Yoav Talmi, Conductor |
Composer or Director: Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler
Label: Ottavo
Magazine Review Date: 7/1987
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: OTRC98402

Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(4) Ernste Gesänge, 'Four Serious Songs' |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Golders Orkest Johannes Brahms, Composer Robert Holl, Bass Yoav Talmi, Conductor |
(11) Chorale Preludes, Movement: O Gott, du frommer Gott |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Golders Orkest Johannes Brahms, Composer Yoav Talmi, Conductor |
(11) Chorale Preludes, Movement: Es ist ein Ros entsprungen |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Golders Orkest Johannes Brahms, Composer Yoav Talmi, Conductor |
Blumine |
Gustav Mahler, Composer
Golders Orkest Gustav Mahler, Composer Yoav Talmi, Conductor |
(5) Rückert-Lieder |
Gustav Mahler, Composer
Golders Orkest Gustav Mahler, Composer Jard van Nes, Contralto (Female alto) Yoav Talmi, Conductor |
Author: hfinch
Van Nes has a warm mahogany mezzo, firm and even in its lower reaches, yearning, and slow to open out at the top. She sings all the way through every vowel in a distinctively sensuous legato which emphasizes Mahler's claustrophobically hugging setting of word to note, note to instrumental colour in the Ruckert songs. Some may find the timbres and intensity just too unrelieved—there is certainly room for brighter expansion at the end of ''Um Mitternacht''—but this is a deeply considered reading.
I found Holl's Brahms marginally more interesting; his rich, dense bass has a healthy, energetic baritone range which he uses to point and give momentum to the phrasing of the first of the Ernste Gesange, and to bring the fourth out into the light with bright, strong vowels. The full weight and ballast of the voice is exploited in the restrained cantabile of the second song; yet it moves nimbly enough in the last, and is superbly focused in the third.
The Gelders Orkest, an ensemble of 72 from Arnhem, are put through their paces in short preludes to the groups of songs. For Mahler, there is ''Blumine'', the second of the First Symphony's original five movements, showing the mellow sturdiness of its string section and the character of its woodwind; for Brahms, Erich Leinsdorf's orchestration of two of the choral preludes pushes wind and brass to their limits in strenuous imitation of a romantic organ, keyboard, pipes, pedals and all.
Yoav Talmi conducts conscientiously, but there are times when one could wish for a clearer, more ventilated acoustic.'
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