Brahms: Tragic Overture in Dm Op81; Symphony in D No2, Op73

On this CD:

1. Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73
Composed by Johannes Brahms
Performed by Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Marek Janowski

2. Tragic Overture, in D minor, Op. 81
Composed by Johannes Brahms
Performed by Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Marek Janowski

Tracks:

Sym No.2 in D, Op.73: First Movt: Allegro Non Troppo
Sym No.2 in D, Op.73: Second Movt: Adagio Non Troppo
Sym No.2 in D, Op.73: Third Movt: Allegretto Grazioso (Quasi Andantino)
Sym No.2 in D, Op.73: Fourth Movt: Allegro Con Spirito
Tragic Ov, Op.81

Brahms: Symphony in D No2, Op73; Tragic Overture in Dm Op81

Average customer rating:

A magnificent and sensational finding!

Brahms: Symphony in D No2, Op73; Tragic Overture in Dm Op81

Manufacturer: Theorema Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00008FWGE
Release Date: 1996-05-21

Customer Reviews:

A magnificent and sensational finding!.......2006-07-16

Through the years, I have realized the underground connection between Bruno Walter and Gustav Mahler, and the overall understanding around his entire work has been the main reason for him to play his Brahms with such notable wholeness.

By some reason Walter seemed to have a very tied affinity with the second symphony. His assertive feature, and undeniable spring breath, exudes that portentous vigor and lyrical musculature that we never see in the rest of his symphonies. Walter knew to remark and even blend with sheer eloquence, the bucolic mood, the reflexive moments as soon as the declamatory last movement which almost means a true Ode to life, where the creative joyfulness, the incandescent joviality and the freshness of the innocence were so notably remarked and even sung by the members of all the Orchestra Alter conducted.

Nobody like him could convey to such privileged level, the Dionysian spirit that visibly is contained in the score: By unexplainable reasons most of directors have turned this movement into a taut and rigid approach becoming of it practically an academic exercise of granitic meaning without soul and delirious robustness, distorting through this involuntary omission a serious problem at the end of the Op.

If you are a newcomer listener and sincerely you would like to bet for a secure choice in this version, you should acquire this album, and if you are a hard fan, you should enrich still more your repertoire with this radiant performance. The Academic Overture and the Tragic Overture own inner and febrile tension and spirit.

So don't hesitate and try by all your means around this unexplainably valuable CD that still had not received yet any previous comment.

Since I got in 1998, I regularly listen, enhancing itself day after day.

Average customer rating:

An adventurous interpretation

Brahms: Symphony in D No2, Op73; Tragic Overture in Dm Op81

Manufacturer: Theorema Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000049VN
Release Date: 1995-12-12

Customer Reviews:

An adventurous interpretation.......2004-08-13

(Originally, the current ASIN was referring to the recording I review here. Later, amazon has shifted the reference. But I let the review stand.)

Hermann Scherchen has a fluctuating reputation among Mahlerites. Some think very highly of SOME of his interpretations (e.g., the Vienna or Toronto no. 7, and the Vienna or Leipzig no. 3), but others consider them to be too adventurous and deviant when compared with Mahler's score.

This recording, however, provides one of Scherchen's best Mahler interpretations caught on a disc: the studio 1959 Vienna take of symphony no. 2. It is as adventurous as one could expect from Scherchen, but this works well with the "sense of drama" that this symphony requires in order to be really successful.

Recording quality is acceptable as an early stereo take, but strings are quite weak (too few).

This interpretation exist in many incarnations, most of them hard to find since they are deleted from the catalogue. The easiest way to find it now is to check HMV's internet shop in Japan, where you can buy it brand new (label: Universal Victor). Catalogue number is MVCW14021. This incarnation is better than all others: it is digitally remastered and the final movement is on one disc, not divided over two discs as in the Millennium Classics set.

Average customer rating:

Brahms: Symphony in D No2, Op73; Tragic Overture in Dm Op81

Manufacturer: Theorema
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000049VU

Average customer rating:

Brahms: Symphony in D No2, Op73; Tragic Overture in Dm Op81

Manufacturer: Theorema
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000049VJ