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

Recording locations: Recorded live at the Salle Pleyel, Paris an d Royal Festival Hall, London.

Soli Deo Gloria is proud to release the third instalment in the successful Brahms Symphony series which sees John Eliot Gardiner and his Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique explore the music of Johannes Brahms.

The choral pieces on this release demonstrate beautifully the extent to which choral thinking permeates Brahms’ orchestral writing. Gardiner states that ‘just as there is choral thinking evident in his symphonies, surely there are also signs of orchestral thinking embedded within his choral writing.’ Both Nänie and Gesang der Parzen show fascinating links with Brahms’ last two symphonies Parzen sharing with the Third not just an adjacent opus number but an immensely powerful orchestral opening, with passing references to ‘early music’ styles next to passages of the most advanced harmony.

Einförmig ist der Liebe Gram, an irresistible little piece written for women’s voices, sees Brahms take the final song from Schubert’s Winterreise and turn it into a haunting six-part canon. Another example of Brahms forging links with a revered predecessor.

Written nearly six years after Brahms completed his Second Symphony, his third symphony was described by Hans Richter on its premiere as Brahms’ ‘Erioica’. A friend of Brahms and music critic at the time, Eduard Hanslick, wrote: “Many music lovers will prefer the titanic force of the First Symphony; others, the untroubled charm of the Second, but the Third strikes me as being artistically the most nearly perfect”

The glorious performances on this CD and on 476 2814 and 476 2816 have never before been available on CD (outside Japan). Taking full advantage of the Gewandhaus' characteristic aural glow, these readings will soon work themselves to the top of the list of the complete Brahms symphony cycles.

Thrilling performances of both symphonies is what you get here, and an aural sound picture of great amplitude.