Initially, Simone Young’s Hamburg Philharmonic Brahms First put me in mind of an earlier live recording from the same city, Furtwängler’s massively stated 1951 broadcast with the North German Radio Orchestra…the opening at least, a heavy, slow-beating Un poco sostenuto that sets us up for a purposeful first movement. There can’t be too many recent accounts that open as imposingly, the main Allegro holding its great weight without the least sign of strain, then subtly gaining momentum as the (infrequently played) repeat kicks in. “Powerful” is the word, and “adoring” the word for the Andante second movement, the strings weaving their sensual lines and drawing a parallel response from the woodwinds. The overall tempo is slow, and the Allegretto is pretty slow too, another convincing performance, though I would have welcomed greater clarity among the winds and strings after the intense Trio section. Young usefully divides her violin desks left and right of the rostrum, a real boon in the finale, especially at around 1'16" where the two desks intertwine. The finale carries real conviction in spite of occasionally blurred detail (the sonorous recording sometimes plays favourites among inner voices) and the work ends in a blaze of strings-dominated glory.

As to comparisons, Iván Fischer is less granitic than Young (though no less gripping), but leaner and stronger on detail, whereas Marin Alsop and the London Philharmonic, although less impressive overall, offer a very well-judged performance. I also have a great deal of time for Bernstein’s gloriously OTT Vienna Philharmonic recording (DG) and Wand’s Munich Philharmonic version (Profil). As to the “Old Guard”, Karajan in the early 1960s with the BPO (DG, 7/95) and, of course, that wonderful Hamburg performance under Furtwängler. That’s the name of the game with this symphony – record it, and the rivals crowd around you, some of them mountain-high. But, taken on its own terms, this newcomer has much to offer.