Best Modern Brahms Symphony Cycle in Digital Sound

[Guest]

Listening to old Otto in the car this afternoon, the Philharmonia Orchestra's string section squealing away like a stuck pig as Brahms's First sallied forth to its jubilant climacteric, I thought to me sen: Gosh, imagine a performance of similar conviction that doesn't sound like pigs being stuck by Stevie Wonder!

And, lo, suggestions were forthcoming, varied and multitudinous in their ranks, from the blessed congregation.

[DublinJimbo]

Unhesitatingly, Marek Janowski and the Pittsburgh Orchestra. Wonderful playing allied with interpretations full of convincing new ideas. The best Brahms in years.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i presently enjoy the Gardiner set which i downloaded from emusic

[Thropplenoggin]

Unhesitatingly, Marek Janowski and the Pittsburgh Orchestra. Wonderful playing allied with interpretations full of convincing new ideas. The best Brahms in years.

Thanks, DJ. I'll see if they're available on a streaming site.

I know the similarly named Jurowski has recorded a couple with the LPO. I seem to recall these getting mixed reviews here.

[richardfinegold]

Unhesitatingly, Marek Janowski and the Pittsburgh Orchestra. Wonderful playing allied with interpretations full of convincing new ideas. The best Brahms in years.

second that

[jayne lee wilson]

I would go for Andrew Manze with the Helsingborg SO on CPO, especially if you can download them as 24-bit files from TCS (there are SACDs available too.) It's less radical in its sonorities than the Gardiner (whose recent German Requiem with his ORR etc. is one of the all-time greats) but I think richer and more expressive than Gardiner too with a very responsive, well-recorded band. You've not much to lose by downloading one or two to try, at eclassical they're pretty cheap (although only available there in lossless). I would go for 3 or 4 as the most outstanding but it is a very good cycle. IRR reviewed it in 2012, in the Spring I think. (I posted a lengthy review of No.3 on this site back then, you might be able to trace it, but...)

EDIT - just checked TCS/eclassical... the downloads are all puzzlingly absent! So, discs only.

[Karafan]

For my all time digital touchstone, it has to be Abbado in Berlin. Quite peerless and my affection for it has never dimmed since purchase, despite being on three shelves full of Brahms symphonies!

[richardfinegold]

i presently enjoy the Gardiner set which i downloaded from emusic

What the heck is that on the CD cover? It looks a like a shelve in a hospital with surgical scrubs piled on it.

[jayne lee wilson]

No, richard, these are Howard Hodgkin's paintings... sorry, but I think they're gorgeous, especially the one for the German Requiem.

What a difference it can make when cover art is chosen carefully. CPO have done similar things recently, check out the Manze/Brahms cycle I mentioned, and the Venzago/Bruckner too. Nothing like a thick relief of pigment!

[Keraulophone]

For my all time digital touchstone, it has to be Abbado in Berlin. Quite peerless and my affection for it has never dimmed since purchase, despite being on three shelves full of Brahms symphonies!

My formative experiences with the Brahms cycle were courtesy of Abbado's contribution to DG's 'The Symphony' edition in the early 1970s, furnished by the wonderful Sutton (Surrey) Public Library, with a relatively youthful Claudio conducting four different orchestras: Wiener Philharmoniker (Symphony No. 1), Berliner Philharmoniker (Academic Festival Overture & Symphony No. 2), the magnificent Staatskapelle Dresden (Haydn Variations & Symphony No. 3) and the London Symphony Orchestra (Symphony No. 4).

Marvellous!

(His Berlin cycle isn't too shabby either.)

[Mr Pee]

Best modern Brahms cycle in digital sound? Rattle/BPO.

[Parry1912]

For my all time digital touchstone, it has to be Abbado in Berlin.

Agreed!

[Barbirollians]

Abbado in Berlin for me .

Walter and the Columbia SO vies with Boult on EMI for the analogue stereo favourite - well that's a close run thing with LSO/Jochum and Halle/Loughran .

Then of course there is Furtwangler ...

[Mahler's3rd]

I really like The LPO/Marin Alsop cycle on naxos

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

I really like The LPO/Marin Alsop cycle on naxos

yep like that too