Classical Music for Aficionados

Now listening to Vadim Neselovskyi, piano

Odesa, A musical walk through a legendary city

I listened to Jascha Horenstein conduct Brahms3 with the Southwestern German Orchestra. On a Pristine Audio restoration of a late mono era Vox recording.  I’ve had the Vox for years though I haven’t played it that often.  The Pristine enhancement is definitely worth it.  One now perceives air around the instruments and a real soundstage.  Solo woodwinds are more prominent, and what used to be a third tier sounding Orchestra now at least sounds second rate.

  I admire JH, and collect many of his recordings, but his Brahms 3 isn’t really for me.  It is definitely old school, autumnal Brahms, although extremely well done.  It sounds deliberate and thoughtful, and not like the flabby mess that Giulini made at the end of his career, and less gimmicky than Bernstein’s outing with the VPO

The Brahms symphonies are each great, but I find few recording rise to the challenges of the music.  Conductors including Karajan, Stokowski and more recently, Ivan Fisher, emote and editorialize too much.  The Carlos Kleiber Brahms 4th, though, is astonishing, as is Furtwangler's WWII live recording of the 4th.  The sound is not great in either, though. It's poor in the Furtwangler, as should be expected from the vintage.   Abbado/Berlin, in better sound, is good, not great. Does anyone have any suggestions for Brahms symphony recordings in modern sound?

Well here is something that, at minimum, you will find more 'modern'. A road less traveled for sure. Paalo Berglund and the COE. If you are tired of over orchestrated, bloated Brahms, performed by large orchestras, which is so abundant, perhaps you should give these a listen. I find them quite attractive. If you like what happens here then maybe you should give his Sibelius a listen as well.