Brahms: Alto Rhapsody, Op. 53

“Philippe Herreweghe's survey of Brahms' works for choir and orchestra is flooded with light...The silky portamenti of the strings is a testament to the refinement of the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées.” The Independent, 5th February 2012

“To hear this music performed with the cool precision and shining transparency of Philippe Herreweghe's forces sends shivers down the spine.” The Observer, 12th February 2012

“the Dutch conductor reveals that same understanding of, and interpretative sympathy for, Brahms’s music that he brought to his Harmonia Mundi recording of A German Requiem...Hallenberg brings a rapt, mellow, consolatory warmth to the Alto Rhapsody, and Herreweghe taps the Song of Destiny for its potent, spiritual essence.” The Telegraph, 24th February 2012 *****

“This is one of the most impressive collections of Brahms's shorter chorus-and-orchestra works that's come my way for some time. It's partly because of the particular combination of works...But it's also the luminous transparency of the performances themselves that's remarkable...All in all, on many levels, a deeply satisfying recording.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2012 *****

“serene, handsomely blended performances.” Financial Times, 31st March 2012 ***

“a superbly rich and eloquent example of Brahms's art at its most sublime...Herreweghe allows the music to evolve with a wonderful feeling of spaciousness in which Brahms's often intense musical textures are beautifully revealed...a performance which stands head and shoulders above much of the competition. It is very much the icing on a mouth-wateringly sumptuous cake of a disc.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2012

“An extremely enjoyable and very useful anthology...[The Schicksalslied] is given a performance that is an ideal combination of drama and transparency; the orchestral epilogue that closes the work is really lovely. Herreweghe's orchestra is responsive to every detail of Brahms's markings...Hallenberg, with her rich tone and fine sense of line and phrasing, has a way of chaping the text that compels attention.” International Record Review, May 2012

“The large Warsaw Philharmonic Choir has a welcome solidity, unanimity and warmth of tone...Wit's tempos tend to be on the brisk side - especially in the Gesang der Parzen, a performance that illuminates that piece's Baroque roots but somewhat mislays its underlying sense of tragic mystery...the field is crowded these days, but this new Naxos offering will be competitive at its budget price.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2012 ****

“Ewa Wolak is a rich-toned contralto, without a hint of a wobble, who can evoke exactly the kind of lyrical drama which the lovely Alto Rhapsody commands...The choral singing is radiant in its glowing simplicity...this super-budget collection is marvellously sung and played.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2012

“You might not like Wit's approach if you like your Brahms volatile. His conducting is wonderfully judged, if slow, allowing the music to unfold with a measured eloquence that often generates a sense of gathering implacability...It's the Warsaw Philharmonic Choir's contribution, superbly controlled and articulate, that is so sensational here, however. Their performance of Nänie, in particular, is among the most beautiful on disc” The Guardian, 9th February 2012 ****

“The performances are lean, light and powerful. The general approach is on the slower side, which sometimes makes the music static. The Alto Rhapsody is unhurried, even restrained - one of those readings that conquer you not by concentrated stress, but by beauty. The solo alto singing is almost operatic; Ewa Wolak’s voice is strong and even, without annoying vibrato...The chorus has a beautiful sound, very good diction, and is well balanced.” MusicWeb International, August 2012

“...these are sterling accounts, with just the right mix of tenderness and sorrow in Nänie and a real tragic forward motion to the central section of the Schicksaslied...aided by the passionately committed singing of the choir. In the Alto Rhapsody Alice Coote is an eloquent and thoughtful soloist” BBC Music Magazine, June 2010 ****

“These are animated, purposeful performances...The movement is free, quite unclogged; the texture is clear, no thickening substance adhering.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2010

“the Middle European Bamberg sound and the Munich-based choristers sound absolutely at home in this repertoire — there is an old-world Brahmsian glow to the singing and playing... Anyone who wants these works on one disc won’t be disappointed.” Sunday Times, 28th February 2010 ****

“Ticciati's performances are wonderfully alive and dramatically sensitive...while the Bamberg orchestra and the Bavarian Radio Choir have this music in their bones.” The Guardian, 25th February 2010 ****

“[Ticciati's] ear for style, detail and musical shape is judicious and his mode of expression sound.This is mellow Brahms...The Bavarian forces perform the music with a soft, radiant glow.” The Telegraph, 12th March 2010 ****

“In the Second Symphony the period strings' lighter articulation gives Brahms's rhythms a sprightlier feel than in many modern sessions. …in Gesand der Geister Gardiner avoids any awkward episodic feeling by making the music tell the story of Goethe's poem fluently and with character.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2009 ****

“Gardiner quotes Walter Frisch's report that Brahms "disliked metronomic rigidity and lack of inflection on the one hand, fussy over- determined expressivity on the other". In the first movement, he and his period instrumentalists strike exactly that balance. This is characterful music-making, complex and subtle.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2009

“Last year I made the CD of the First Symphony one of my Recordings of the Year. This latest instalment will be on the shortlist for 2009, I feel sure – unless SDG trump this particular ace by releasing Symphony 3 before the year end. One can live in hope.” MusicWeb International

“[The 1st movement's opening horn theme is] played on natural horn, already outmoded by Brahms’s time...the phrase is lightly broken, in the baroque fashion. Such well-defined colours and detailed attention to articulation collide with the idea of this work as predominantly warm, relaxed and lyrical, and Gardiner sometimes scrubs perhaps a little too vigorously on the patina of inherited performance traditions. Still, he certainly provokes fresh thinking.” Sunday Times, 1st March 2009 ***

“John Eliot Gardiner's Brahms cycle, performed across two seasons in several venues, was at pains to place the four symphonies, the German Requiem and the Alto Rhapsody in the context of music that Brahms is known to have admired, and which influenced his own works. For the disc of the Rhapsody and the Second Symphony, recorded in the Salle Pleyel, Paris, in November 2007, that context is provided by three of Schubert's male-voice choruses. Two of them are sung by the Monteverdi Choir in Brahms's own arrangements, while the most substantial, the Gesang der Geister über den Wassern, seems a direct antecedent of the writing for male voices in the Alto Rhapsody, which Natalie Stutzmann sings with gravity. The account of the symphony is impressive too - the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique sounds on more secure form than it was for the London leg of this tour - and Gardiner's swift reading is always dramatically sure footed.” The Guardian, 6th February 2009

“Orchestre Romantique et Révolutionnaire's sound is vivid and clear. Nathalie Stutzmann's "Alto Rhapsody" is tenderly shaped, depthless, elegant…this is an arresting and impressive performance.” The Independent on Sunday

“John Eliot Gardiner and the ORR continue their Brahms symphonies series with this live recording of No 2, with the heartfelt Alto Rhapsody (soloist Nathalie Stutzmann) and three Schubert choruses as a bonus. Energy and meticulous phrasing truly ignite this score. Strings use limited vibrato, with judicious portamento and expressively varied bowing.” The Observer, 8th February 2009

“Gardiner's speeds are so relaxed that the music almost falls over. Still, they emphasise the melancholic strain in a work easily pigeonholed as a lyrical effusion. You can also enjoy the wide colour palette of the period instruments of the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. Nathalie Stutzmann's expressive way with the Alto Rhapsody is a delight; and the Schubert items for male chorus make interesting companions.” The Times, 14th February 2009 ***

‘…an opportunity to be with Brahms for nearly an hour in which the thoughtful, questioning mood is unbroken and its musical expression unblemished.’ Gramophone