Search - Brahms, Marek Janowski, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra :: Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3 [Hybrid SACD]

Oh, dear, this is fantastic

B. G. Reinhart | Houston, TX | 02/25/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm a student with a shortage of spending money, so in a weird way it's unfortunate when a great CD gets released that I just have to buy. This is one of them. Conductor Marek Janowski leads performances of these two symphonies which are among the best we'll ever have, in pristine new sound quality.



Marek Janowski has a terrific sense of rhythm and an ear for hidden detail, and as a result these performances are terrifically snappy and atmospheric. Consider the first movement of the Third Symphony; it's driven forward by the force of a powerful basic tempo and careful attention to the contrapuntal parts upon which Brahms places so much emphasis. The finale, too, is propelled forward with unstoppable momentum, and the same could be said for the end of the Second Symphony, in a performance every bit as thrilling as the grand old renditions of Arturo Toscanini.



Indeed, the Second is a landmark success. It's hard to walk a fine line here between draining the music of its lyricism on one hand, and putting your audience to sleep on the other. (As far as sleep goes, one of the main themes is a variant of Brahms' famous lullaby...) Marin Alsop's CD a couple years ago, though much cheaper than this, nearly put me to sleep as Alsop wallowed and wallowed through a first movement lasting twenty-one minutes. Janowski and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, by contrast, maintain the balance perfectly, delivering by virtue of attention to detail and - again - a simply great sense of rhythm.



It should be noted that the sound quality is fabulous. I listened over the Internet via Naxos Music Library, and have yet to purchase the physical CD, but it was clear to me how well PentaTone has captured the presence of the orchestra. Even the basses are well-represented in the balance, and make some thrilling contributions. The Pittsburgh Orchestra plays beautifully throughout, even perfectly, with terrific solos in the slow movements and white-hot intensity in the finales.



If you've never heard these symphonies before, this is the place to start; if you have, though, this new disc probably surpasses the competition in its sound quality. And there are many details of the orchestration - which now convinces me more than ever before - which I'd never heard before until listening to these performances. In short, for Brahms fans, this disc is a must-have."

Brahms 2 & 3 in Rich Dark-Chocolate Sound

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 02/16/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Unlike the previous reviewer (Shine), I adore Brahms's symphonies but unlike many who do I love the Second and Third more than the more generally favored First and Fourth. Also unlike that reviewer I found the sound on this CD to be marvelous. It is recorded in a chocolaty yet utterly clear sound which one can hear in both the SACD and plain stereo layers of the CD. The sound here is easily the equal of the Pittsburgh's and Janowski's earlier recording of the First Symphony. Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C minor; Haydn Variations [Hybrid SACD]



The Second Symphony is a marvel of concentrated construction, taking for its main melodic cell that almost nondescript opening bass line - D C# D then down to A - which shows up in every imaginable guise throughout the entire symphony. In this marvelous performance Janowski manages one of the trickier moments in all of Brahms. He is able to make clear, in the first movement's coda, Brahms's marking of 'sempre tranquillo' without altering the tempo. Most conductors put on the brakes here and mess up Brahms's carefully considered momentum. The second movement, Adagio non troppo, is marked by some scrumptious playing by, among others, the solo horn, oboes, bassoons, clarinets and flutes. The Pittsburgh play this movement in a slightly darker tone than that of the sunny first movement, surely precisely what Brahms intended. The third movement is one of Brahms's characteristic genial scherzos with its old-fashioned almost rustic feel. Its gemütlich character is caught marvelously by Janowski and the Pittsburgh. The Second's finale, Allegro con spirito, opens with a misterioso sotto voce rush which leads to a spirited movement laced with dollops of Gypsy music so typical of Brahms's final movements. Listen for the brilliant but sparing use of the trombones in this movement. A lovely recording of a lovely symphony.



The première of Brahms's Third was one of his greatest triumphs, in spite of some hissing by the Wagner partisans in the audience. The larger part of the audience's spirited response gave Brahms pause and he wondered if he had unwittingly pandered to the tastes of the masses. Certainly this is a masterpiece whose construction is one of Brahms's subtlest, not the least because the symphony, after struggles, ends with hard-won calm or even resignation rather than jubilant triumph, among the first symphonies to do so. The symphony begins with an assertive statement that many conductors tend to make too broad, in spite of Brahm's marking it 'con brio.' Janowski and the Pittsburgh play it slightly less brightly than I might have preferred but this is about the only criticism I have of their performance of the first movement. If you want to hear wind playing of utmost subtlety, listen to the first section of the Andante. This is the winds' moment to shine as the strings don't enter for many measures at the beginning of this movement. In the third movement, Poco allegretto, the cellos have their moment, too, when they open the movement with one of Brahms's loveliest melodies, later taken up by the entire orchestra. This might be the moment to comment that the Pittsburgh is in particularly fine shape currently and nowhere is this more evident than in this lovely movement in which each section of the orchestra has its opportunity to shine. The symphony's finale quotes all the preceding movements and after several minutes of development it gentles down to a lovely glowing aura that always reminds me of a sunset. Another lovely performance.



These are marvelous performances of marvelous symphonies. And in marvelous absolutely up-to-date sound in both the SACD and stereo layers.



A strong recommendation.



[Note: The wrong orchestra and conductor are listed for the sound samples from this CD.]



Scott Morrison"

Among the Best Recordings of the Brahms 2nd and 3rd Symphoni

John Kwok | New York, NY USA | 07/20/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Marek Janowski's recent Pentatone recording of the Brahms 2nd and 3rd symphonies with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra may be the best I've ever heard with an American orchestra. It is definitely among the finest recent ones I am familiar with, comparing favorable with those from Marin Alsop and the London Philharmonic Orchestra and, especially, Bernard Haitink and the London Symphony Orchestra. Janowski's rich interpretations of both symphonies, especially the 2nd Symphony, is richly dark chocolate - to quote from a previous reviewer's observation - in tone. Surprisingly, I found his interpretation of the 2nd Symphony slightly more rewarding than Haitink's - whose recent 2nd Symphony recording I regard as the one to be measured against others - especially in his handling of the brooding, haunting qualities of the first movement. In both symphonies Janowski excels in obtaining exceptional solo work from the winds and strings; overall the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's playing in both symphonies is as splendid as any I have heard from Europe's great orchestras, with perhaps, the notable exceptions of Karajan's and Abbado's Berliner Philharmoniker and the Wiener Philharmoniker under the batons of Bohm and Bernstein. Without question, I highly recommend this recording as a primary recommendation for either of Brahms' symphonies, to be collected along with Haitink's quite commendable LSO Live cycle from earlier this decade."