Brahms Symphony Cycles

[pastoralguy]

Maybe I am, not for the first time here, in a minority of one but can you explain, without being too explicit, exactly what is a 'contra faggot' moment?

Deep, sustained booming in the winds...

[P. G. Tipps]

Deep, sustained booming in the winds...

[vinteuil]

Maybe I am, not for the first time here, in a minority of one but can you explain, without being too explicit, exactly what is a 'contra faggot' moment?

.

or possibly -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrabassoon

[cloughie]

I really surprised that connoisseurs here don't like Brahms! He's definitely in my top 5 of favourite composers and the symphonies spoke to me from the very beginning.

I'm currently listening to Guilini's Brahms' 1 that was recorded live with the Symphonie-Orchestra des Bayerischen Rundfunks on Hanssler Classics. Oh my goodness, those contra faggot moments...

Giulini is an interesting Brahms conductor - he manages to be expansive without sounding heavy.

[Barbirollians]

Giulini is an interesting Brahms conductor - he manages to be expansive without sounding heavy.

That could be said about much of his work Cloughie.

[cloughie]

That could be said about much of his work Cloughie.

But not all!

[makropulos]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Mackerras

I did - post 25 above. Very definitely one of my favourite cycles.

[Alison]

A mention for the early nineties Wolfgang Sawallisch cycle with the LPO.

Bags of warmth and character, neither slow nor heavy, well recorded; the Third especially fine.

[Beef Oven!]

A mention for the early nineties Wolfgang Sawallisch cycle with the LPO.

Bags of warmth and character, neither slow nor heavy, well recorded; the Third especially fine.

Interestingly, when I bought the Abbado set in around 1991/2 (IIRC), it was the Sawallisch set that was the alternative. I got taken in by the Glitz of the BPO/Abbado team and if I’m honest, I looked down on Wolfgang’s set because it was mid-price and a bit of a bargain. I made a wrong turn.

[teamsaint]

Terribly terribly overwrought. The first couple of minutes are amazing but after that it forgets all about them, and can't decide on what sort of piece it is until the Finale becomes a pale echo of Beethoven's 9th.

.

I had a listen to a Gunter Wand recording tonight with your thoughts in mind.
I'm confused now, beacuse I don't know if don't agree,or just don't want to agree.

[Petrushka]

If it's any consolation, it took me a long time to truly appreciate Brahms. The 1st Symphony I liked immediately and have never gone off it; the 2nd, by contrast, proved a tough nut to crack. Haitink's 2001 Prom performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra made it click; I heard the 3rd in concert with Loughran and the Halle Orchestra in 1976 but was never quite sure about it. The penny dropped a long time ago though; the 4th is another that I liked immediately, since buying Carlos Kleiber's recording in 1981.

The Brahms Symphonies and Piano Concertos as a body of work have taken me around 40 years of patient listening before fully falling into place and eventually becoming very important to me in my early 60s (ie now). Sometimes there are those pieces that need a long period of patience before achieving a status that you would once never have thought possible.

[Conchis]

If it's any consolation, it took me a long time to truly appreciate Brahms. The 1st Symphony I liked immediately and have never gone off it; the 2nd, by contrast, proved a tough nut to crack. Haitink's 2001 Prom performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra made it click; I heard the 3rd in concert with Loughran and the Halle Orchestra in 1976 but was never quite sure about it. The penny dropped a long time ago though; the 4th is another that I liked immediately, since buying Carlos Kleiber's recording in 1981.

The Brahms Symphonies and Piano Concertos as a body of work have taken me around 40 years of patient listening before fully falling into place and eventually becoming very important to me in my early 60s (ie now). Sometimes there are those pieces that need a long period of patience before achieving a status that you would once never have thought possible.

I am still waiting for this process to work for me with Bach, but somehow I doubt it ever will.

[Beef Oven!]

I had a listen to a Gunter Wand recording tonight with your thoughts in mind.
I'm confused now, beacuse I don't know if don't agree,or just don't want to agree.

Your head is telling you something your heart doesn’t want to listen to.

[DublinJimbo]

I remember being desperately upset when my music teacher criticised Brahms and compared him unfavourably with Wagner. Even as a teenager I could't understand why there wasn't room for both. I adored Brahms 1 from the very first time I heard it, and was astounded by number 4 when first I heard that. Numbers 2 and 3 proved more difficult to begin with, but now I could't be without them. What I love most about Brahms is his ability to conjure up melodies (or themes – whatever you want to call them) which have an air of inevitability about them – imbued with a conversational quality which suggests that much has already gone before, and I am constantly in awe of his capacity to begin a work in a consistently attention-grabbing way, and then going on to cap that with perorations which sweep the listener along and get the juices flowing.

Brahms is firmly entrenched in my highest echelon of favourite composers, along with Beethoven and Schubert, and he can hold his head up high in that exalted company.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I remember being desperately upset when my music teacher criticised Brahms and compared him unfavourably with Wagner.

I know the feeling. The music department in my old school was excellent, but there were still prejudices of this kind. The O-level teacher dictated to us some scathing notes about Tchaikovsky - an attitude that was rife at the time. Not dissimilar to the notorious article on Rachmaninov in Grove.