Brahms Symphony No1

[Beef Oven]

My listening is often highly interactive, wallpaper having nothing to do with it

Mine too - includes a rather nice plastic chopstick from the local restaurant and the living room pouf!!!!

[verismissimo]

Boult you mentioned, but I'd want the live (ICA) and studio (EMI and Pye) versions.

The early Pye is really excellent!

As is the Levine/Chicago Symphony, recorded in one 3 hour session.

Then there's the Sanderling with the Dresdeners.

And Kempe with the Muenchners...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I reckon that in this symphony Furtwängler always has something to offer.

The RFH BPO/Karajan is also very special - and, as always, Loughran with the Hallé on CfP is first class (and shows that the Expo repeat in the First Movement is both structurally essential and emotionally desirable).

[cloughie]

Kempe is of interest to me - his accompaniment to Menuhin with the BPO in the violin concerto is magnificent.

I have a number of the Furtwanglers - the one in the EMI set is probably my favourite .

Kempe BPO is avaialable in the Testament set - really good and one of my all-time favourites having first encountered it on a MFP LP - Also the set includes his wonderful No2 - the downside is the price-tag!

[PJPJ]

Then there's the Sanderling with the Dresdeners.

I'm waiting for a reissue of that set. Do the masters belong to Sony? BMG? Eurodisc?

[silvestrione]

The RFH BPO/Karajan is also very special - .

I agree: a real spiritual journey of great intensity. But that's not the only Karajan version worth having. Clearly the symphony was one of those key works for him. See the early Concertgebouw version now on Naxos, the glorious-sounding VPO version on Decca, and the wonderful drama of the first BPO one from the 60s, used to be coupled with Schumann's 1st.

[BBMmk2]

Jeggers Brahms 1?

[hafod]

The 1968 Boult with the LPO is very good

I played this symphony under Jascha Horenstein. What an experience! I don't know whether he ever recorded it or with whom.

HS

I have a Brahms 1 from Horenstein and the LSO recorded January 1962 on Chesky in my collection which I haven't played in years - must do so.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000003GCY

I would include van Beinum and Walter (NYPO) on the list of very worthwhile versions of this symphony.

What are the turkeys?

[Karafan]

I'm waiting for a reissue of that set. Do the masters belong to Sony? BMG? Eurodisc?

Well the original RCA set was under the BMG aegis, unless the rights have been sold. I was never struck with the set. In #1 I prefer Abbado in Berlin (in fact his whole cycle is pretty much hors concours for me!).

K.

[Petrushka]

I can see this thread is going to cost me money.

I have many already mentioned, the wonderful LPO/Boult being a Christmas acquisition, but I seem to have missed out on Kempe's Brahms.

In addition to those mentioned I have VPO/Bernstein, the 1977 Karajan, VPO/Böhm, Concertgebouw/Haitink, Chicago SO/Solti and Philharmonia/Giulini on BBC Legends.

[silvestrione]

I'm not sure Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra has been mentioned: very well reviewed, a fresh performance, though I've only played it once.

[mathias broucek]

I must have 20+. The ones I would turn to are:

Jochum/LPO
Horenstein/LSO
Sanderling/Dresden
Celi/Stuttgart (the more dynamic Stuttgart recordings trump Munich in the odd numbered symphonies)
Karajan/BPO (RFH)
Van Beinum (Decca) - I believe he died rehearsing the 1st BTW

[Roehre]

...Van Beinum (Decca) - I believe he died rehearsing the 1st BTW

Yes, he did (1959). And thus the way was paved for Haitink (1961-1988) (first together with Jochum 1961-1964 as co-principal conductor - the only co-principal the Concertgebouw ever had, a fact that's virtually unknown, and suppressed a bit because it meant the orchestra which was proud of always having a Dutch conductor actually did have a non-Dutch conducor at its helm. This tradition ended with Chailly as Haitink's successor in 1988)

The orchestra has always been lucky with its Brahms conductors: Mengelberg, van Beinum, Jochum, Haitink, Chailly.

[Tony Halstead]

I used to own the monumental tome " The Compleat Conductor" by that American polymath, Gunther Schuller, horn player, composer, conductor and writer. (I say 'used to' because several months ago I loaned it to a pupil ( as we teachers do...), can't remember exactly who, and will now probably never get it back.)

However, I do remember a brilliant chapter in which Schuller goes into great detail about nearly every one of the 70-odd Brahms # 1 recordings available when the book was written ( about 1998).
He pretty well trashes many of the 'great', iconic recordings and in his final judgement finds a lot to praise ( not unreservedly) in performances by ( among others) Stokowski, Furtwängler, Szell and even Norrington.

Surprisingly his overall 'winner' ( not that he uses such a crude expression) is Scrowaczewski/ Hallé. His reasons are partly to do with 'faithfulness to the score' but also "Stan's" mastery of tempo relationships and transitions.

I urge anybody who has any conducting aspirations at all, whether amateur or professional, to buy the remarkable Schuller book. Non-conductors as well will find much to enjoy in the book.
Other recordings which are analysed, dissected and finally judged include Brahms' # 4, Beethoven's #5 & #7, Strauss' 'Til Eulenspiegel' , Ravel's 'Daphnis et Chloë', and several other works which I now can't quite remember.

[PJPJ]

Well the original [Sanderling] RCA set was under the BMG aegis, unless the rights have been sold. I was never struck with the set. In #1 I prefer Abbado in Berlin (in fact his whole cycle is pretty much hors concours for me!).

K.

I haven't heard the Sanderling Dresden set, and never got round to getting the Abbado on DG which is also very highly praised by so many. I guess Sanderling's Dresden orchestra's horn players use far more vibrato than West German ones.