As you would expect from a conductor so renowned in the large spans of Bruckner's symphonies as Gunter Wand, the short, but no less important, lengths of Brahms's are well encompassed by him and are one of the most satisfying things about this record of Symphony No. 4: he sees each movement as one vault from start to finish. It has sometimes been remarked that it is a pity he has not had a better orchestra for his recordings, usually made with that of the Cologne Radio; but the similarly sponsored orchestra from Hamburg are a different matter and never let him down. (They were founded immediately after the war and the first conductor for a great many years was Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, who raised them to a very high level.)
Wand does what to my mind are all the right things, choosing lively but sensible tempos and keeping the pulse going within each movement. That is to say (and regular readers will know the main places to which I refer) the slow movement is basically an andante and not something nearer an adagio, while the flute solo in the finale and the music all around it is kept going so that one can sense the three-in-a-bar beat still pulsing throughout.
Wand is most faithful to every one of Brahms's markings. Only the start of the final passacaglia seems less than arresting. True, the chords have no accent marks on them, so they are properly not attacked as such. Yet Carlos Kleiber on his DG disc achieves something more brilliant, without making unasked-for accents; but his record is remarkable in every way, not least in its vivid sound.My only disappointment with this Deutsche Harmonia Mundi recording is some lack of clarity, of the sort of texture one especially expects from CD. (The LP sounds much the same.) Strings are warm in quality and so, for that matter, is every other section of the orchestra. Yet that startling clarity is slightly missing, especially in the first movement (perhaps one's ears have adjusted to the sound by the time the later ones come).
We are not short of good recordings of Brahms's symphonies and one can therefore afford the very highest standards. With that in mind, Kleiber is my choice, with Wand next, followed by Solti (Decca) and some way behind him, Karajan (DG)—the latter available on LP only.'