Bloody hell, these are actually quite good!!!
Javier Bezos Lopez | 10/07/1999
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I've listened to the ASMF and Neville Marriner perform all sorts of works and have found them to be hands down the best ensemble in the world in performing music written for chamber orchestra. Their attempts with weightier romantic pieces, however, have always left me wanting, wishing they could combine their beauty of sound and texture with the passion and punch the music was meant to convey. Alas, they seem to have finally done it! I think these performances of the Brahms symphonies are great and I listen to them all the time. I still prefer Walter's 3rd and Kleiber's 4th, but it's really a pleasure to hear such beautiful playing with some huevos for once. With both symphonies on one disc, you can't go wrong. Highly recommended!!"
Underrated Fourth
Javier Bezos Lopez | Madrid, Spain | 04/10/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"After reading a moderately positive review of this performance in a past issue of the Gramophone magazine (1998, by then it was still a _very_ good magazine) I was curious about it and I heard the samples. I liked and I bought the CD.
#3/I is not bad, but in this difficult movement this is good - I still prefer Karajan, even if he omits the repeat, and Walter. Movs. II, III are good, but competition is strong, and then we have an energic IV.
But #4 is a treasure (the five stars are for this symphony) and I don't understand how this version is so neglected in preference to, say, Berglund, who is unable to shape transitions or phrases properly or to find the main melodic part. Another reviewer uses the word huevos, which we Spaniards know well, and he's right. Mov. I is swift and flows naturally, and Marriner builds the musical tension progressively, II is contrasted and some variations are dramaticly played, while Andrew Marriner at the clarinet provides delicacy and expression, III is vital, and the final passacaglia equals or even surpasses C. Kleiber, IMO.
#4 is a very very underrated version which is now next to Toscanini/NBC and Kleiber in my shelves.
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