BaL 13.04.24 - Brahms: Symphony 3

[silvestrione]

(Wow! I just wanted to quietly celebrate: this thread is like old times! I was beginning to think we'd never get properly going again)

[Pulcinella]

(Wow! I just wanted to quietly celebrate: this thread is like old times! I was beginning to think we'd never get properly going again)

No need to be in brackets!

Long live our discussions, regardless of what horrors befall us!

[Alison]

Nobody seems to mention the BPO/Rattle set these days.

[Gargoyle]

I have the Levine/CSO set, which was in a cutout bin a few years ago at the CSO Symphony Storehaven’t listened in a while but I don’t remember very fondly. Wondering if you have contrasted it with the VPO version?

I know you didn’t ask me, but I cited the Levine CSO Brahms 3 down thread and I chose it above his VPO. I rate both recordings very highly and they are fairly similar, but I find the beauty and clarity in the CSO strings, and the glorious brass, just that bit better than the VPO. I actually think the CSO is the better orchestra.

[Barbirollians]

Any takers for Chailly/Gewandhausorchester? Received good reviews a few years ago.

Yes I think my favourite recent set of the Brahms symphonies.

[Barbirollians]

I am just going to listen to the 1954 Furtwangler.

[pastoralguy]

Any takers for Chailly/Gewandhausorchester? Received good reviews a few years ago.

And it includes the original introduction to the Fourth Symphony. Absolutely marvellous.

[richardfinegold]

As someone with a great fondness for Levine's 1980s recording of Ma Vlast with the VPO I feel impelled to hear the Brahms 3, particularly in light of the encomiums lavished on it herein. However, is this a case of caveat emptor (auditor?) given various Gramophone reviewers' brickbats hurled at it. Take this review, from Jonathan Swain, for example:

"Excepting the startling Toscanini NBC-style subito mp in the sixth bar (and at a ll subsequent repeat points), the first movement is responsibly conducted. Levine makes the most of the inner movements' crescendoing string themes, and his accentuation guarantees a dramatic trombones' entry in the slow movement. I am grateful for the opportunity to have heard the finale as explosively conducted as this, but shan't be returning to it again." Or, then again, Robert Layton in the Quarterly Retrospect:

" I t is all crude and coarse - and, above all, lacking in any real personality. I was reminded of Edward Seckerson's remarks earlier in the year about Levine's Chicago Symphony Orchestra disc of the Prokofiev First and Fifth Symphonies (DG, 1/95), for they apply no less here: "thy expression is so generalized that these big, imposing, implacable sonorities fail to mean anything . . . he has got his foot down on the power; the characterization passes him by".

Yes, interesting, but I couldn’t disagree more about the Prokofiev disc, which is outstanding

[Barbirollians]

I am just going to listen to the 1954 Furtwangler.

Forgotten quite how compelling it is . Fantastic finale in particular - went back and repeated the finale.

[akiralx]

As someone with a great fondness for Levine's 1980s recording of Ma Vlast with the VPO I feel impelled to hear the Brahms 3, particularly in light of the encomiums lavished on it herein.

That's interesting because I was thinking of extending my Levine DG collection by investing in that Ma Vlast - but then I remembered I had the same orchestra playing it under Harnoncourt on RCA/BMG - if anyone has both is it worth getting the Levine? I've already got his enjoyable Bartered Bride dances so I probably will get it.

[DoctorT]

Nobody seems to mention the BPO/Rattle set these days.

Somehow I found it a bit bland, not really sure why. I much prefer the Chailly (and Norrington LCP, but don’t tell anyone!)

[silvestrione]

Nobody seems to mention the BPO/Rattle set these days.

Do you value it, Alison? I had the box, but didn't keep it, as far as I remember because they just weren't memorable performances (I'm a Rattle enthusiast normally)

[smittims]

I think I've listened to it once! Superbly played and recorded, but somehow I've never wanted to hear it since.

[richardfinegold]

I know you didn’t ask me, but I cited the Levine CSO Brahms 3 down thread and I chose it above his VPO. I rate both recordings very highly and they are fairly similar, but I find the beauty and clarity in the CSO strings, and the glorious brass, just that bit better than the VPO. I actually think the CSO is the better orchestra.

As a local I’ll drink to that.

[oliver sudden]

I am just going to listen to the 1954 Furtwangler.

…and I may be some time.

edit: oh good lord, the first three bars have a lifetime’s worth of so-wrong-it’s-right in them, eh?