Brahms: Symphonies 2 & 4

Mengelberg, Willem, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

8.110158

The Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra has always been a particularly tradition-conscious body of players. Even in relatively recent times, its resistance to certain areas of repertoire has made musical headlines. Its special sound quality was zealously nurtured and guarded as part of that tradition, and never more productively than under Mengelberg’s influence. Until the Second World War it manifested a wholly distinctive and instantly recognisable sound profile, one that is engagingly audible in these Brahms performances. The strings possess a muscular, sinewy tone that never swamps the texture, allowing other sections to variegate colour when necessary and notably different to the saturated dominance cultivated by many Brahms conductors in the second half of the twentieth century. Lyrically pliant, soaring and graceful, but with gutsy emphasis when required for more forceful passages, the sound is delicate, radiant or powerful on demand, with portamento sparingly (but judiciously) voiced for pertinent added emphasis at key moments.

Similarly, the woodwind is a collective of characterful soloists, lithe, reedy and plangent in isolation, and an athletic, well-integrated choir as an ensemble. Their interplay with the strings in the darting third movement of the Second Symphony is a miracle of articulation and of musicians pertinently listening to each other, the acoustic of the hall audibly played off for all its considerable worth. Perhaps most striking of all is the sonority of the brass tone, particularly that of the trombones, whose burnished, cutting edge remains unique. Brahms deploys them sparingly but tellingly, and the Amsterdam players never fail to respond with a characteristic dark-hued profile.

Partnerships of this quality and duration between conductor and orchestra have become rare in our times. Not only do these performances sound a corrective to late twentieth century blandness and indulgence in Brahmsian symphonic interpretation, they also represent a signal testament to the special achievements of a long term creative alliance.

CD x 1

Naxos

12/3/01

636943115824