101 Classical Music CDs

I've dealt with Brahms' Fourth once before in a recording by the Weiner Philharmoniker under Carlos Kleiber. Today's post will cover an alternate recording of Brahms' Fourth, and it will complete our journey through the Philadelphia Orchestra's recording of Brahms' complete symphonies. Recall how I said that the simple act of picking up that Klieber disc, dusting it off and playing it made this entire blog worthwhile ? Well, today's CD has helped me get to know Brahms' Fourth even more intimately. It's one of the greatest classical music works I've ever heard, and I'm starting to think it might be my favorite symphony of all time. And I never knew it existed until I started this blog and began systematically working through my collection of classical music CDs. ********************** Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Complete Symphonies Philips, 1989 ********************** We've talked before about...

The Third is the most overlooked of Brahms' symphonies. In fact, The Essential Canon of Classical Music (which has become a veritable bible to me as I write this blog) gives the work only three bare sentences, saying that the Third "is infused with a genial lyricism," a phrase I view to be more condescending than insightful. ********************** Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Complete Symphonies Philips, 1989 ********************** I consider this symphony simple and direct. It is a pearl. And it has one element that at the time was considered shocking in its originality: a quiet, peaceful ending during an era of loud and drawn-out symphonic climaxes. With the minor exception of an out of tune clarinetist (more on this below), this is an excellent recording. Before we get to the listener notes, let's spend a brief moment on my favorite pet peeve: atrociously written liner notes . Here's a particularly inscrutable lin...

Today I'll evaluate a second version of Brahms' Second Symphony and use the opportunity to get to know this beautiful work even more intimately. ********************** Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Complete Symphonies Philips, 1989 ********************** I'll spend a fair portion of this post highlighting differences between today's recording by the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the more polished, almost mistake-free version by the Boston Symphony Orchestra that we listened to back in April. Before we get started, however, let me be clear on one point: despite the fact that I'll be citing strengths and weaknesses of one performance versus another, the actual differences in quality between these two performances is extremely small. So small, in fact, that it's simply further proof of my prior assertion that you can purchase pretty much any recording of any symphony performed by any major orchestra (think NFL cities),...

We're going to put in to practice the comparison exercise I talked about in our last post by comparing a new recording of Brahms' First Symphony (this one part of a 3-CD collection of the complete symphonies of Brahms performed by conductor Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1989) to the original recording that I profiled back in February (which was a 1983 performance by Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic). ********************** Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Complete Symphonies Philips, 1989 ********************** I can't do justice to describing what an absolute pleasure and a great learning experience this process was. Two wonderful hours flew by while I listened to each of these symphonies back to back, taking notes all the while. Let's get right into the listener notes. Listener notes for Brahms Symphony #1 (Philadelphia Orchestra): 1) A general (and extended) comment on the tone of the overall...

Today's disk is one of my all-time favorites. I affectionately call it "old man" because of the picture of a somnolent Artur Rubenstein on the cover. ********************** Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor Artur Rubinstein and the Guarneri Quartet RCA, 1988, originally recorded 1967 ********************** I'll confess, it took some getting used to for me to appreciate these chamber music works. First, I'm a trumpet player, and know less than nothing about stringed instruments or the piano. Heck it wasn't until I got this disk that I figured out that a "piano quartet" wasn't four pianos playing together (it's actually a string trio--violin, viola and cello--accompanied by piano). Second, most beginning listeners, when they think of classical music, think of the symphony as its primary form. But spend 40 minutes listening quietly and closely to Brahms' Piano Quartet #1 and tell me it...

I just finished listening to a symphony that has, at a stroke, made this entire blog worth every minute I've spent writing it. This CD of Brahms 4th Symphony has been sitting on the top shelf of my CD rack, collecting dust, for at least two years. I've never once listened to it until now. And I cannot believe I've let this amazing work lie fallow in my home without even knowing it. And now I have a new all-time favorite Brahms symphony. ********************** Carlos Kleiber and the Weiner Philharmoniker Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Symphony #4 Deutsche Grammophon, 1981 ********************** This symphony is so haunting and beautiful that I had to listen to it a second time immediately after the first. I find the contrast between Brahms' first two symphonies and his fourth particularly interesting. His first two symphonies seem structured and formal, in the style of Beethoven's symphonies (note that this is not an original thought--most serious classical music comme...

Brahms' First Symphony, which we listened to in February , was reportedly the product of at least 14 years of work (some sources will say two decades), as he felt the heavy burden of attempting to compose a symphony with sufficient "gravitas" in the post-Beethoven era. In contrast, he wrote his Second Symphony in less than a year. ********************** Bernard Haitink and the Boston Symphony Orchestra Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Brahms: Symphony No. 2 Philips, 1991 ********************** It's interesting how a genius like Brahms puts so much pressure on himself writing one symphony that it takes him so many years and so much suffering to get it done. But in the next year , he quickly pounds out another symphony--one that's just as beautiful by the way--without putting any evident pressure on himself at all. In both symphonies he came up with the goods. But how can the composition of one work be so seemingly effortless while the other needed to be dragged kicking ...

Brahms is often referred to as "the third B" (following Bach and Beethoven) of the giants of classical music. But what's so compelling to me about Brahms was his self-critical nature and the ridiculously high-standards he set for himself. He constantly denigrated his compositions, even destroying much of his own work that was in his opinion substandard. If this guy thought his work was substandard, where does that leave the rest of us? To me the lesson here is that a creator can be the worst judge of his own work, and you should never let self-criticism interfere with your creative output. Now if I could just do that myself... ********************** Leonard Bernstein and the Weiner Philharmoniker Johannes Brahms Symphony #1 Academic Festival Overture Deutsche Grammophon, 1983 ********************** If you want to look for particularly gripping passages of Brahms' First Symphony, you can start by listening closely to the first few minutes of the second movement, which...