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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Marin Alsop Begins Her Brahms Series, 22 Feb 2005
[I have compared the SACD and plain CD versions of this disc and can say that the issue on SACD is in much more brilliant and lifelike sound, as seems to be the case generally for SACD issues. Being a hybrid SACD, this issue can be played on either a regular CD player or a newer SACD player. Many classical music lovers who haven't yet bought an SACD player are nonetheless acquiring discs like this one in order to have them when they DO buy a newer machine. In my case, I do not own an SACD player and made my comparisons of the two versions of the disc using a friend's equipment. And I'm inching toward buying an SACD player for myself.]
Marin Alsop, who is surely a rising star among American conductors, has made a lot of recordings in recent years, but they are mostly of American music and slightly outside the core repertoire--Rouse, Bernstein, Barber, Torke, Edgar Meyer and Mark O'Connor, Libby Larsen, Joan Tower, Edward Joseph Collins and with her own Concordia Orchestra, the music of stride-master James P. Johnson. Now apparently she's thought to be good enough by her main record label, Naxos, to begin recording things in the center of the classical music repertoire -- the Brahms symphonies and overtures. This CD is the first in that series. And she is given one of the world's great orchestras to record with, the London Philharmonic. The question, of course, is how will she do in these hugely over-recorded works? On the basis of this first disc I'd have to say that she will be able to hold her own with the big boys. Her effort here is abetted by absolutely exquisite playing by the LPO.
The Brahms First is the favorite of many people (not me, no doubt a personal idiosyncrasy) and thus is a tough one to start the series with (aside from that being chronologically appropriate). This is, by and large, a mainstream reading. Tempi, with one small exception, are well-judged. Balances are superb. Phrasing is sensitive, transitions, with the same exception, are smooth and natural-sounding. The LPO play like angels. How does Alsop's conception compare with other conductors' versions. Well, much to my surprise the performance this most reminds me of is my own personal favorite of all the Brahms Firsts that I know, that of Kurt Sanderling conducting the Dresden Staatskapelle, recorded in 1971. Perhaps there is less cholesterol in the string playing than in the wonderful Walter/Columbia Symphony recording, but the LPO strings are actually somewhat lusher than those in the Sanderling. There are many other wonderful performances, of course, including Haitink/Concertgebouw, Furtwängler/VPO, Karajan/BPO, and many others. But this one can stand with them. My only quibble, alluded to above, is the handling of the crucial tempo change in Movement IV at the statement of the Big Tune. The score calls for an Allegro non troppo ma con brio tempo for the initial statement of that theme, but Alsop takes an Andante con not much moto at the beginning (and it DOES sound lush and beautiful, I'll give it that) but the lead up to the animato section at mm. 94 and following, seems to rush awkwardly to get up to the tempo she wants for the animato. That aside, though, this is a lovely reading and one that easily deserves a recommendation. Add to that good performances of both the Tragic and Academic Festival Overtures, and you have a winner.
Naxos helps us out with their budget pricing. How can you lose?
TT=72:42
Scott Morrison
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~ Johannes Brahms
~ Johannes Brahms
~ Johannes Brahms
by Christopher Hitchens
~ London Symphony Orchestra
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