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5.0 out of 5 stars
The Genial Brahms Second in a Fine Expansive Performance, Jan 31 2007
First a couple of stories about the writing of the Brahms Second Symphony. He began it in his first summer at a retreat on Lake Wörth in southern Austria where, he said 'Melodies are so abundant you have to be careful not to step on them.' Certainly, in this symphony he scooped up numbers of them. He must have been in an exuberant mood as he was composing it because he twitted his notoriously prim and humorless musical friend, Elizabeth von Herzogenberg, by writing her that the symphony was basically just a series of F minor chords played first ff and then pp, the joke being that there is not a single F minor chord in the symphony. It is in sunny D major. Some have called the Second Brahms's 'Pastoral' Symphony.
This performance led by Marin Alsop reminds me of a couple of recordings that I know and love well, those by Kurt Sanderling and the Dresden Staatskapelle and by, of all people, Otto Klemperer and the Philharmonia. Largely this is because she takes a leisurely approach that simply revels in the harmonic luxuriance of all four movements, never rushing, never forcing the drama (as in the climaxes of the first movement) but letting the music speak for itself without artificially added histrionics. She is aided immensely by the London Philharmonic's masterly playing. The strings are positively silken; their tone seems to have, particularly in the slower legato sections, an added depth of dark chocolaty tone. The horns, particularly the solo horn, are equally rich and dark. The other winds sound appropriately Germanic, even though this is an English orchestra; I wonder if that is a conscious decision on their part? The brasses, especially the trombones, are mellow but still dramatic when need be.
The little fugue, begun by the horn with a tiny phrase from the main cello melody in the second movement (one of Brahm's loveliest movements, in my opinion) is done with grace but is incisive as well. For many conductors it is in this slightly awkward movement that they have difficulty. Alsop lets it all unfold naturally and there is no sense of effort; as well, the dense contrapuntal writing and the imaginative rhythmic offsets are underlined to just the right degree. The third movement's relaxed scherzo, based on peasantish dance rhythms, is genially done and prepares us for the fourth movement's quick and dramatic alternations of a plethora of themes, including - typical of Brahms finales - a Hungarian (read 'gypsy') strain. A trombonist friend says he loves Brahms's use of his instrument in this finale, and indeed the burnished sound of the trombones adds to the movement's fiery finish.
This is a superior performance of the Second and is worthy to stand beside any version currently available.
For lagniappe we have orchestral versions of eight of Brahms's Hungarian Dances (Nos. 1, 3 and 10 orchestrated by Brahms; Nos. 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21 orchestrated by Dvork), all played with Schwung and piquancy by Alsop and her band. Aren't we all glad that Brahms made that early tour accompanying the Hungarian violinist Eduard Remnyi and developed his undying taste for gypsy music?
An easy, even urgent, recommendation.
Scott Morrison
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