COMPOSERS: Brahms
LABELS: Mercury Living Presence
WORKS: Symphony No. 1; Symphony No. 2; Symphony No. 3; Symphony No. 4
PERFORMER: LSO, Minneapolis SO/Antal Dorati
CATALOGUE NO: 434 380-2 ADD 152:43 1957-63
Other recordings of Brahms’s symphonies are certainly more perfect, more detailed, more profound even, but few match the raw exhilaration of these Dorati performances. No. 2 is the odd man out, played by the Minneapolis SO rather than the LSO, and is the only case where accuracy may have been sacrificed in the cause of élan. Even so, the breathless urgency of these totally involving performances commands admiration. Christopher Wood
Brahms: Symphony No. 1; Symphony No. 2; Symphony No. 3; Symphony No. 4
Other recordings of Brahms’s symphonies are certainly more perfect, more detailed, more profound even, but few match the raw exhilaration of these Dorati performances. No. 2 is the odd man out, played by the Minneapolis SO rather than the LSO, and is the only case where accuracy may have been sacrificed in the cause of élan. Even so, the breathless urgency of these totally involving performances commands admiration. Christopher Wood
Our rating
4
Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:31 pm