Brahms: Symphony No. 2 / Academic Festival Overture
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JOHANNES BRAHMS
Brahms: Symphony No. 2 / Academic Festival Overture
Herbert Blomstedt , Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
[ Pentatone / CD ]
Release Date: Friday 25 September 2020
This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.
Maestro Herbert Blomstedt and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig continue their integral Brahms symphonies project with a recording of the composer's Second Symphony in D Major, alongside his Academic Festival Overture. Although idyllic and pastoral at first sight, Brahms himself remarked that he had "never written anything so sad".
Blomstedt and the orchestra bring out all the different moods and colours of this exceptional work, while the Academic Festival Overture provides a jubilant, glorious conclusion.Blomstedt's work as a conductor is inseparably linked to his religious and human ethos, and his interpretations combine great faithfulness to the score and analytical precision with a soulfulness that awakens the music to pulsating life. In the more than sixty years of his career, he has acquired the unrestricted respect of the musical world. The Gewandhausorchester Leipzig is the oldest civic orchestra in the world with a glorious history, and is still counted among the world's leading ensembles. Their PENTATONE debut with Brahms' First Symphony and Tragic Overture (2020) received rave reviews.
"Blomstedt takes a decidedly autumnal view of Brahms's Second Symphony - and he has every right to do so...His lingering account of the first movement alone occupies well over 20 minutes…With glowing playing throughout from the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra it's hard not to enjoy this affectionate and superbly recorded new version." Five Stars BBC Music Magazine Orchestral Choice June 2021
"The recording quality is almost the ideal for Brahms. Clear enough to hear little details like the tuba about two minutes in (I'd never noticed it before but Brahms the master orchestrator knew exactly what he was doing, adding just the right amount of gravitas before the fun really starts) but rich enough for the big climaxes to offer us great washes of glorious sound. Virtually every bar brings new delights - the way the woody bassoons hand the baton to the tangy oboes at 4:09 is a total joy and when the same tune comes back on the strings seconds later it becomes joy unconfined." MusicWeb
Tracks:
Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68
Tragic Overture in D Minor, Op. 81
