Phils 9: Brahms & Barber

Brahms: Tragic Overture and Symphony No. 4
Leonard Bernstein, Vienna Philharmonic
Deutsche Grammophon

Baritone Thomas Hampson on Leonard Bernstein: “You learned 150% commitment to the moment that you’re making music. I don’t remember a lot of corrections. I remember a lot of ‘What are we after here, and what’s the musical structure here?’ He believed in tracing something down to the bottom” (Opera News, July 2011). So it is with these two recordings, both on the same album. No wild tempo fluctuations or self-indulgence here! The flow and pacing creates solid structures. There is a deliberateness to tempos, balances, and contrasts that gives weight here, airiness there. Bernstein knows when to hold the reins tight and when to loosen them. The results? Transparent tone colors and harmonies that create mood, atmosphere, and meaning. You’ll hear the music as you’ve never heard it before, as if all the usual approaches have been scrubbed away and the painting cleaned, with its radiant original surface revealed.

In the symphony, after the seriousness of first two movements, the Scherzo is like a sudden klieg light. The finale doesn’t feel Allegro at first, but it certainly is “energico e passionato,” but, by the end, Brahms’ ingenious writing makes it Allegro (with only the subtlest tweaking from Bernstein). These performances are the cure for anyone jaded by over-familiarity with two warhorses.


Barber: Violin Concerto
Isaac Stern; Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic
Sony Classical

What a glorious concerto—no slimmed-down orchestra here! In fact, an expanded one with piano. There are three stars here: Barber’s expansive Americana sound that would make Copland smile; Stern’s exceptionally warm, tender, and supremely lyrical violin; and Bernstein’s utterly ecstatic orchestra that he wraps right around the violin. Balances are exquisite, both between soloist and orchestra and within the orchestra itself, and the engineering is rich and embracing. Here are Stern and Bernstein both at their peak, serving up sheer rhapsodic bliss.

WebTips: This recording is available on a number of CDs. Kill two birds with one stone by buying the album that pairs it with Barber’s Piano Concerto (See Phils 5) with John Browning, George Szell, and the Cleveland Orchestra; and Barber’s Adagio for Strings with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra—all three performances are simply the best.