BRAHMS Symphonies Nos 3 & 4

The other half of Young’s Hamburg Brahms cycle

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Johannes Brahms

Genre:

Orchestral

Label: Oehms

Media Format: Super Audio CD

Media Runtime: 74

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: OC677

OC677. BRAHMS Symphonies Nos 3 & 4. Young

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Symphony No. 3 Johannes Brahms, Composer
Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Simone Young, Conductor
Symphony No. 4 Johannes Brahms, Composer
Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Simone Young, Conductor
There are one or two magical moments here. The most obvious wafts in for the coda of the Third Symphony’s Andante, where, beyond the sounding of mellifluous horns, Simone Young cues a radiant choir of strings, easing the tempo just enough for a glow not to slump into a wallow. I was surprised that for the return of the second theme in the Fourth Symphony’s second movement she opts for relative restraint (the passage is after all marked poco forte espressivo), which does rather leave the heartstrings aching for more, but it’s a sensitive performance for all that, nicely played. The scherzo is very fast, with a brief pause before the sforzando growl in the fifth bar.

Elsewhere, although the symphonies’ varying moods are well captured, I missed a crucial element of clarity. For example, a little beyond the start of the Third Symphony’s repeated first-movement exposition (from, say, 3'19"), the nuts and bolts momentarily loosen, though to be fair these are live performances and one shouldn’t expect too much in the way of tight execution. Still, this is by definition a comparative review and as good as this CD often is (and that magical moment in the Third’s Andante is truly memorable), there’s better on the market with, for this particular coupling, Karajan’s 1977 recording, Wand and the much underrated Edouard Lindenberg vying with the best for persuasiveness and conviction. It’s basically a matter of secure focusing. For much of the time these performances project their arguments as if from behind a subtle veil, which is not what you need – and isn’t entirely the fault of the (generally acceptable) recording.

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