Classical Music for Aficionados

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.  

Hi all:

I am a new contributor to this classical forum, and am delighted that there is an Audiogon group that is focused on the much neglected classical repertoire by audiophiles. Certainly, there is no other branch of music can that can fully test the excellence of audio systems like classical!

I recently picked up the recent Brahms symphony cycle on CD at Tanglewood with Andris Nelsons and the superb Boston Symphony.

I have never heard Brahms interpreted quite like this, and my appreciation grows with every repeat hearing. Nelsons imparts a new fluidity to these great works - and nowhere is this more evident than in the relatively neglected 2nd Symphony. You will be captivated by this performance as well as the sumptuous sound quality of this relatively new release. It is time to experience the wondrous subtleties that unravel so perfectly under Nelsons’ direction.

  I haven't hear Nelsons in Brahms.  The reviews have been somewhat mixed.  For the record my favorite cycles are

1) Kurt Sanderling/Dresden Staatkapele  mine are on Japanese Blue Spec discs but they always seem to be in print somewhere. 

2) Walter/Columbia SO (stereo-there are several Walter mono cycles which are even better performances) only a low energy Fourth keeps this from top rank 

3) Klemperer/Philharmonia  O.K., Klemperer could be granitic, but Brahms was definitely in his wheelhouse

4) Jurowski/Pittsburgh  on Pentatone-the best Multichannel set

5) Karajan/Berlin P   I give my nod to the seventies cycle, but there is a more exciting live Brahms cycle from the early seventies recorded in Paris in good FM stereo available from Norbeck,Peters, and Ford (norpete.com) that blows away the studio cycles.  The more live Karajan I hear, the more I realize that he could have tremendous spontaneity)

I'd like to hear the Steinberg/Pittsburgh set that was just released by DG, I think it is mentioned a bit upthread