 | This montage from our Podcast Vault revisits a post from January 25, 2013. It can be found in our archives at https://archive.org/details/BrahmsFestivalPart4 |
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Throughout the week, I programmed our Brahms Cycle podcasts from
January 2013 in sequence, culminating today with a Podcast Vault share
featuring Brahms’ Symphony no. 4.
In his Classical
Net review of Eugen Jochum’s Brahms cycle with the Berlin Philharmonic
reissued on CD, Brian Wingman makes an audacious claim, given the high standard
the Berlin orchestra has maintained in the German repertoire under luminaries
like Furtwangler, Karajan, Abbado and even more recently Simon Rattle: this
is the finest Brahms cycle to ever come out of Berlin. More than simply
having the Berlin Philharmonic sounding splendid for 1952, Jochum is also able
to bring out enormous amounts of detail through his careful attention to the
winds and brass - freewheeling, but always musical.
Ignoring monophonic recordings is a dangerous gamble that
causes you to miss out on exceptionally great musicianship. Jochum was nothing
if not a great musician, and his Brahms recordings happily stand the test of
time. Jochum did record these pieces later in stereo, with the London
Philharmonic on EMI. Those readings (available on YouTube here) are wonderful, and the best
Brahms with that particular ensemble.
Completing the original montage, a lively interpretation
of Brahms’ Serenade no. 1 by Raffi Armenian and his then orchestra in
Kitchener-Waterloo.
As our bonus share, another recording by Jochuim and a
London orchestra (this time, the LSO) in Brahms’ Haydn Variations (we heard the
two-piano version this past Tuesday), coupled with Elgar’s Enigma Variations
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3B_RNobM-BQl3M_QPc1rIU4gMv8vSkhV
I think you will (still) love this music too.
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