Brahms:Serenade No.2/Variations On A Theme/Academic Festival Overture

Johannes Brahms (Composer), Leonard Slatkin (Conductor), Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra)

Product Details

• Orchestra: Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Leonard Slatkin
• Composer: Johannes Brahms
• Audio CD (May 25, 1990)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B000003ES9
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #439,253 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. I. Allegro Moderato

2. II. Scherzo

3. III. Adagio Non Troppo

4. IV. Quasi Menuetto

5. V. Rondo

6. Chorale St. Antoni

7. Variation I: Poco Piu Animato

8. Variation II: Piu Vivace

9. Variation III: Con Moto

10. Variation IV: Andante Con Moto

11. Variation V: Vivace

12. Variation VI: Vivace

13. Variation VII: Grazioso

14. Variation VIII: Presto Non Troppo

15. Finale

16. Academic Festival Overture, Op.80

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This attractive Brahms collection juxtaposes two familiar works (Haydn Variations and the Academic Festival Overture) with the rarely performed Second Serenade, an odd little piece scored for a small orchestra without violins. Leonard Slatkin and his St. Louis forces have cultivated a reputation for excellence in American and Russian music, mostly of this century, but their richly burnished, central European sound is excellent in Brahms. If you like this particular compilation, the performances are fully worthy of the music. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Brahms Serenade #2, Academic Festival Overture, Slatkin, cond., January 1, 2009

By	Hobart A. Brown "Bart Brown" (Santa Cruz, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Classical music reviews are necessarily subjective. I heard this recording
played on KBOQ recently and,liking it, went looking for it. I've been very appreciative of Brahms works for many decades. Since I've been influenced by Toscanini, I appreciate clarity, energy, and intelligent interpretation. Also, having been interested and involved in acoustics and sound reproduction for many years, I'm acutely sensitive to the effects acoustics can have on a recording's aesthetic values. But there, too, the evaluation of such parameters is subject to the listener's personal preferences. I like the sound of the St.Louis Symphony recordings. Typically, the "miking" is closer than with most and the hall is free from spurious and annoying resonances. Fortunately, for my taste, there is a minimal amount of reverberative clouding of the music. As is typical of Leonard Slatkin, he is aware of the value of each phrase as well as thematic continuities within the context of the music. He doesn't hesitate to make use of the rich content of the melodies, polyphonies, counterpoint, structure, and orchestral sonorities that Brahms so masterfully exploited. Slatkin isn't afraid to use subtle changes in tempi and use a judicious amount of portamento in his strings when the musical content makes it appropriate. Unfortunately, these instruments of expression have fallen into disuse in times of increasing cynicism. All this results in a recording that is, musically and technically, an exceptional one in which old "war horses" are heard anew. The microphones have been very strategically placed in accordance with what will best reveal the musical content. That means, for example, that a passage needing closeness to various instruments has it provided by microphonic and electrical balancing, whereas other passages in other movements, more declamatory, have different balances and perhaps more distant pickup. These are, of course, the result of decisions arrived at by the conductor and producer. This recording which was from BMG classics,and is now out of print, has been reissued by Arkiv Music. Having compared the two, I can say the new issue looks and sounds the same as the original. The CD has been professionally recorded and not on some ephemeral dye type of disc. Bart Brown... [...]