Brahms - Complete Symphonies - Teldec: 0630131362 - download

Any fears that Nikolaus Harnoncourt's Brahms will be quirky, provocative or abrasive can be dispelled. There are interpretative novelties (freshly considered articulation and clarified counterpoint)... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Catalogue No: 0630131362
Label: Teldec
Length: 3 hours 33 minutes

Brahms: Variations on a theme by Haydn for orchestra, Op. 56a 'St Anthony Variations'

Work length18:15

$10.00

$13.00

Berliner Philharmoniker
Nikolaus Harnoncourt

I Theme

Track length2:09

$1.00

$1.30

II Variation 1

Track length1:27

$1.00

$1.30

III Variation 2

Track length1:03

$1.00

$1.30

IV Variation 3

Track length1:55

$1.00

$1.30

V Variation 4

Track length2:06

$1.00

$1.30

VI Variation 5

Track length1:03

$1.00

$1.30

VII Variation 6

Track length1:20

$1.00

$1.30

VIII Variation 7

Track length2:28

$1.00

$1.30

IX Variation 8

Track length1:09

$1.00

$1.30

X Finale

Track length3:35

$1.00

$1.30

Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68

Work length47:45

Album only

Berliner Philharmoniker
Nikolaus Harnoncourt

I Un poco sostenuto - Allegro

Track length17:17

Album only

II Andante sostenuto

Track length8:30

$1.00

$1.30

III Un poco allegretto e grazioso

Track length4:53

$1.00

$1.30

IV Adagio - Allegro non troppo, ma con brio

Track length17:05

$1.30

$1.70

Excerpt, Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73

Work length35:40

Album only

I Allegro, ma non troppo

Track length21:05

Album only

II Adagio non troppo

Track length9:01

Album only

III Allegro grazioso

Track length5:34

Album only

Brahms: Symphony No.2 in D major Op.73 : IV Allegro con spirito

Work length9:46

Album only

Brahms: Tragic Overture, Op. 81

Work length14:30

Album only

Brahms: Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80

Work length10:34

Album only

Brahms: Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90

Work length28:11

Album only

I Allegro con brio

Track length13:31

Album only

II Andante

Track length8:16

Album only

III. Poco allegretto (Excerpt)

Track length6:24

Album only

Brahms: Symphony No.3 in F major Op.90 : IV Allegro

Work length8:46

Album only

Excerpt, Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98

Work length29:40

Album only

I Allegro non troppo

Track length12:30

Album only

II Andante moderato

Track length11:17

Album only

III Allegro giocoso

Track length5:53

Album only

Brahms: Symphony No.4 in E minor Op.98 : IV Allegro energico e passionato

Work length10:42

Album only

Reviews
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Reviews

2010

Any fears that Nikolaus Harnoncourt's Brahms will be quirky, provocative or abrasive can be dispelled. There are interpretative novelties (freshly considered articulation and clarified counterpoint) and the Berlin strings project a smooth, curvaceous profile. Harnoncourt makes a beeline for the brass, and the horns in particular. The live recordings have remarkable presence and are mostly cough-free.
The First Symphony's opening Un poco sostenuto seems a trifle soft-grained but the pounding basses from bar 25 are beautifully caught and the first-movement Allegro is both powerful and broadly paced. The Andante sostenuto slow movement is both limpid and conversational, with trance-like dialogue between oboe and clarinet and sparing use of vibrato among the strings.
Harnoncourt makes real chamber music of the third movement, though he drives the trio section to a fierce climax, and the finale's first accelerating pizzicatos are truly stringendo poco apoco – the excitement certainly mounts, but only gradually.
The Second Symphony's first movement is relatively restrained. Harnoncourt's strategy is to deliver a sombre exposition and a toughened development. Again, the slow movement is fluid and intimate, with some tender string playing. The third movement's rustling trio is disarmingly delicate and the finale, tightly held, keenly inflected and heavily accented: the coda threatens to break free and the effect is thrilling.
First impressions of the Third suggest a marginal drop in intensity, yet the first movement's peroration is so powerful that there's a retrospective suspicion that all the foregoing was mere preparation. The middle movements work well but the rough-hewn, flexibly phrased finale really makes the performance.
Like the Third, the Fourth opens with less import than some of its older rivals, yet the development intensifies perceptibly, the recapitulation's hushed piano dolce opening bars are held on the edge of a breath and the coda is recklessly headstrong. The slow movement has some heartfelt moments, the top-gear Scherzo is quite exhilarating and the finale, forged with the noble inevitability of a Baroque passacaglia.
Ultimately, Harnoncourt delivers a fine and tragic Fourth.
Harnoncourt's Brahms is the perfect antidote to predictability and interpretative complacency.

Awards Issue 2012

Under Harnoncourt the music's gently descending lines truly glow [in the Third], distinctively but never conspicuously, and the gradual 'dying away' is beautifully handled

Brahms - Complete Symphonies

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