I reviewed each of the four single discs which make up Dohnanyi's Brahms cycle, but though I had a clear recollection of their general characteristics I found that I had retained no distinct memory of any one performance when the new set arrived, and I had to listen carefully to every work again. If that confession implies deficiencies in Dohnanyi's conducting (or my memory), then I hasten to add that there is indeed a good deal of merit in these Teldec performances. But the music is always placed first, and at the end of each work the impression which remains is not that of Dohnanyi's Brahms, but Brahms served and revealed by a skilful and self-effacing interpreter. Everything is in place. Each tempo is well-chosen the phrasing is always sensibly managed and no detail obtrudes. Dohnanyi's objective style suits the First and Fourth symphonies best, but the Third is impressively managed too, and only the lyrical Second Symphony seems a little deficient in warmth. Personally I do wish for a little more individuality in the playing throughout the set, though the task of listening to the four symphonies in a row probably heightened a slight impression of blandness. The Cleveland Orchestra are tonally magnificent, and Teldec's wide ranging, open recording serves admirably.
Solti's Decca set seems to me less successful than the Teldec issue. Everywhere a brilliant and vastly experienced musical mind is clearly at work. Each performance has been thoroughly and carefully conceived, and the playing of the Chicago orchestra could scarcely be better. But there is a curiously unspontaneous, reined-in quality in the music-making, and the impression one gets is that Solti is not quite at home in Brahms. There is a lack of flow in his conducting, and when he strives for extra expressiveness the result somehow seems unnatural and contrived. Solti's set includes the Tragic Overture and Academic Festival Overture, but not the Haydn Variations, and the transfer from the original 1978/9 analogue recordings has brought a touch of shrillness and hardness.
Both sets have their good points but there are better versions of each work available in single issues.'