Brahms Symphony Cycles

[jayne lee wilson]

I kinda still do.

And it doesn’t help that we only ever see images of him when he’s older, rounder and with that awful beard!

He wasn’t born 40!

Let’s think of a younger Brahms!!!

If it's young & youthful you want then.... Berglund is your athlete... https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brahms-Symp...onies+berglund
Ages since I heard it you understand, but I loved it back in the day (better, or at least warmer, more sensuous orchestral characters than Mackerras/SCO versions...see RC's comparison in G, 8/2001.)

http://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/brahms-j-symphonies-nos-1-4-berglund-johannes-brahms/0761195099025

But I'm always biased in favour of the gorgeous COE... (especially if they're playing Schumann with Y-N-S, Beef...)

[Beef Oven!]

If it's young & youthful you want then.... Berglund is your athlete! https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brahms-Symp...onies+berglund
Ages since I hear it you understand, but I loved it back in the day (better, or at least warmer, more sensuous orchestral characters than Mackerras/SCO versions...)

I bought the Bergland when it first came out and as I said in post #5, Berglund got me interested again, but it waned. I played #1 from that set last week, but it didn’t hit the spot. However, I’m listening to the Manze (#1) that you recommend and that is hitting the spot! I don’t know whether to buy it, or go for the Barbirolli (that has caught my imagination).

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I began with VPO/Kertesz on Decca LPs - very good in every way, with sumptious Decca sound (marred by a touch of wow in the finale of no. 2).

Then it was VPO/Barbirolli - much maligned by some critics, but I love it, especially no. 3.

CDs came, and it was VPO/Bernstein, at a time when DG's recordings were at their worst, but this Brahms set was quite different, with open, natural sound, at it remains my favourite cycle (though Abbado is rather good too).

[EdgeleyRob]

A bit pricey on Amazon. Surely a set ripe for re-issue as a Sony box?

I think I paid a tenner for the set a few years ago (HMV sale IIRC)

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/May01/Brahms_Szell.htm

[gurnemanz]

My only complete set for years was Sanderling/Dresden Staatskapelle on LP. Very happy I was. I don't so often listen to Brahms symphonies any more. I have Bernstein/New York, Karajan and Toscanini on big boxes - all worth hearing of course but possibly not first choices as cycles. I very much like that Boult cycle mentioned above. My only recent Brahms symphony purchase was Blomstedt and Gewandhaus Orch doing No 4 on a superb and v cheap Decca Twofer coupled with choral items, which I love. Not sure if Blomstedt did a cycle. That Berglund looks tempting.

[richardfinegold]

I guess the Brahms Symphonies are in my musical freezer for now, whilst I continue to have an obsession with the German Requiem (just downloaded Herve Niquet's - wait for it - 51'00 version. And very it is.).

Still, always nice to have an excuse to show this again.... quite the loveliest cover art ever attached to them. And as it happens, the last cycle I fell in love with, wondrously remade and remodelled in glorious 24/48 sound, and as it also happens, more impressive every time I returned to them over several years...





(For big-band-Johannes, I previously favoured Sanderling with the Staatskapelle, but those scratchy-sounding old Navigators did them no favours.... as with Neumann's Martinu Cycle you'd have to seek them out via the Mastersonics again, like this one - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brahms-Symp...ies+sanderling

The only one I ever got, but a total transformation of the sonics....)

I'm with jlw here and I think we discussed this before . Sanderling is my favorite set, preferably with the Japanese Blue Spec discs, probably due to the improved remastering and not from the blu ray technology. The Manze set is great fun as an alternate. My other favs are Klemperer/Philharmonia and Janowski/Pittsburgh on Pentatone with incredible sonics and very solid performances.
Furtwangler may be my all time favorite but most times I wish to hear the music in stereo.
I had just picked up the Levine/Chicago set, very cheap on Sony, and find myself unmoved, although I am not sure I can explain why. I had also heard the same forces in concert around 30 years ago in a couple of the Brahms Symphonies and reacted the same way then

[Barbirollians]

The sensational EMI Furtwangler live set obviously .

The Columbia SO/Walter - the warmest yet thrilling

Abbado /BPO

Boult/LPO with his excellent 1 and 3 live on ICA Classics

Barbirolli /VPO 2 and 3 and his earlier Pye 1 and the Barb Soc live 1 too - struggle a bit with his VPO 1 and 4

Klemperer's classic " so right sounding " set

Sanderling on RCA

Alsop on Naxos - is jolly good with a very fine St Antoni Variations fill up

Kertesz on Eloquence with a particularly lovely Fourth

LPO/Jochum

Halle/Loughran - library stuff

Then that awesome Karajan Brahms 1 on Testament with a coda to make your hair stand on end

Toscanini live with the Philharmonia but ouch for that trombone

[Beef Oven!]

Decided to buy the Barbirolli VPO set from the mid-sixties. Was a toss-up between that and the Manze (may invest in that later).

Can’t go wrong with this Cockney Italian bloke, born in 1899!!

[akiralx]

The sensational EMI Furtwangler live set obviously .

The Columbia SO/Walter - the warmest yet thrilling

Abbado /BPO

Boult/LPO with his excellent 1 and 3 live on ICA Classics

Barbirolli /VPO 2 and 3 and his earlier Pye 1 and the Barb Soc live 1 too - struggle a bit with his VPO 1 and 4

I think you're right there about JB - the Second is fine from that set but I listened to the Fourth recently and did find it rather sedate.

I have enjoyed the rather fiery mono Walter set with the NYPO, pretty good sound for the period.

One CD I return to often is James Levine's VPO recording of the Third, that might be my favourite Brahms symphony recording: really gripping and also full of autumnal colours.

[makropulos]

My favourites include:
Jochum/BPO (DG mono)
Furtwängler, especially in No. 1
Walter/NYPO (mono) - and also the pre-war No. 3 with the Vienna Philharmonic which is marvellous.
Toscanini/Philharmonia
Klemperer/Philharmonia
Boult EMI cycle
Mackerras/SCO
Chailly/Leipzig

And like several others, I much enjoy Andrew Manze's set on CPO - thought-provoking, imaginative and in beautiful sound.

[Pulcinella]

I know that I've mentioned before that Brahms 2 was my NUJMB Music A-level set work in 1968, and I still have a strong affection for it, even after listening to it almost every evening for several months.
The Boult EMI LP then (with exposition repeat, and separated violins, IIRC), now in my collection as the HMV CD issue (along with the two others to complete the set).
I also have the Wand NDR set, which I don't think has been mentioned yet in this thread. I seem to remember it being highly thought of when it was released, but perhaps less so now?
Interesting to read the comments about Szell. I have (and very much like) his piano concerto set (with Rudolf Serkin as the soloist), so can imagine what he brings to the symphonies.

[cloughie]

I know that I've mentioned before that Brahms 2 was my NUJMB Music A-level set work in 1968, and I still have a strong affection for it, even after listening to it almost every evening for several months.
The Boult EMI LP then (with exposition repeat, and separated violins, IIRC), now in my collection as the HMV CD issue (along with the two others to complete the set).
I also have the Wand NDR set, which I don't think has been mentioned yet in this thread. I seem to remember it being highly thought of when it was released, but perhaps less so now?
Interesting to read the comments about Szell. I have (and very much like) his piano concerto set (with Rudolf Serkin as the soloist), so can imagine what he brings to the symphonies.

Kempe for me - his BPO formerly on EMI now a Testament box, but also the RPO 4th is a good add on to this.

[DublinJimbo]

My other favs are Klemperer/Philharmonia and Janowski/Pittsburgh on Pentatone with incredible sonics and very solid performances.

Janowski/Pittsburgh is my favourite set. It really grabbed me on a first hearing, and continues to do so.

[Stanfordian]

For my taste the finest Brahms cycle is from the Philharmonia under Otto Klemperer on EMI.

[HighlandDougie]

Kempe for me - his BPO formerly on EMI now a Testament box, but also the RPO 4th is a good add on to this.

There is also Kempe's 1970s Munich Philharmonic cycle (on Ariola Eurodisc) which is very fine. As is the later Sanderling cycle (with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra) - and I have a weakness for Celi/Munich PO (on EMI), although it is very slow at times.