This performance was first included in a box of seven records forming part of DG's 150th anniversary celebration of Brahms's birth and was in general well received by RL: his one slight reservation was that comparative LP recordings under Boult and Haitink had more spaciousness about them. However, I am quite content with what I hear here. I admit that the orchestra is a little too closely recorded but that is far outweighed by, among others delights, the enchanting playing of the BPO woodwind; and I like the way Abbado emphasizes the pastoral aspects of the score, remembering that though Brahms first called the work a ''Symphony-Serenade'' he later dropped the first word of that title.'