Customer Reviews

Brahms: Symphony No. 4 / Academic Festival & Tragic Overtures

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Admittedly this recording will not replace definitive versions of the 4th symphony from the likes of Haitink, Kleiber, or Masur. Still it remains one of the best recordings I've heard of Brahms' 4th symphony - if one doesn't object to its rather dry acoustics. Bernstein leads the New York Philharmonic in a dramatic, riveting performance that is almost as fine as his later live recording with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Along with Brahms' 4th symphony, this CD includes fine performances of the Academic Festival Overture and the Tragic Overture. Fans of Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic will certainly want to acquire this CD.

Because of his personal charisma, we tend to think that Leonard Bernstein was dashing and extroverted in everything he conducted. But as this 1962 Brahms Fourth shows, he could be conventional at times. Everything goes well, and the overall performance is satisfying, but it's not intense or gripping to an extraordinary degree. Not until the rollicking Scherzo did I feel very involved, after two middle-of-the-road movements, and then the finale goes back there. It needs a tragic dimension and inner turbulence, both lacking despite fine execution by the NY Phil. The recorded soun is rather distant and lacking in dynamism.

Fortunately, LB kpet growing, and by the time he recorded his second Brahms cycle for DG in Vienna, his intenisty and concentration had doubled. Some critics call those latter readings eccentric, but to me they are personal and quite gripping. As for the overtures from the two following years, the Academic Festival Over. is much better recorded than the Fourth and carries the stamp of the conductor's ebullience--it's very fine. At the same level we get a Tragic Over. that's robust and propulsive, with nice roughness around the edges--another winner. I agree with the reviewer below who gives them five stars.