Brahms with Fresh Ears
J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 04/30/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Unlike my esteemed fellow reviewer, Santa Fe Listener, I find this set of recordings -- two CDs for the price of one, I might add (although for a total listening time of only 86 minutes) -- to be refreshing. Perhaps it's because I grew up on Toscanini recordings of Brahms; Toscanini typically took faster tempi than other conductors and tended to prefer a leaner sound, and that's what we find in these live recordings from 2008 by Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic. Certainly there is not the gravitas here that one gets with some central European conductors, but Jurowski certainly does better than some of the other 'fresh look' conductors like Norrington or Gardiner. And the London Phil is in top form. Textures tend to be somewhat more transparent than we may be used to, but this allows to hear things we might not otherwise be aware of, like the web of counterpoint in, say, the First's second movement.
As for the sunny Second, it really, for me, hits the spot. There is joy, lyricism, playfulness, geniality, gemütlichheit in fine supply and the LPO play like champs.
There are certainly times that I prefer the fuller, luxurious sound of, say, Jochum in these works, or of the Germano-Soviet conductor, Kurt Sanderling, but I'm perfectly satisfied much of the time with Jurowski's more limpid accounts.
Scott Morrison"
Jurowski seems totally lost in Brahms
Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 03/19/2010
(2 out of 5 stars)
"In the U.S. the flood of ex-Soviet conductors has barely been felt so far as permanent appointments go. The situation is quite different in the UK, where between them, the Russian, Latvian, and Czech arrivals are in charge of three London orchestras (the London Phil., BBC Sym., and the top one of all, the London Sym.) and regional orchestras in Birmingham and Liverpool, with an Isreali of Ukranian heritage ensconced in Scotland. They are a talented influx, and no name is hotter at the moment than Vladimir Jurowski. He specializes in opera but has also made a name in the Russian orchestral repertoire. But to judge by this CD, he has a ways to go in Brahms.
It's not as if the Russian school of conductors leaves German music out, but at the moment few of the emigre conductors seems to be able to deliver convincing Beethoven or Brahms. In this case, Jurowski seems alien to the whole aesthetic of Brahms. He rushes tempos, loses the thrust of the argument, smooths out textures and skims the surface when Brahms begs for the conductor to dig deep. There are non-Russian conductors whose Brahms is just as superficial -- John 'Eliot Gardiner comes to mind -- but none who seem so displaced as Jurowski. His Sym. #1 isn't even a run-through; it's more like a sketch made on the run.
Sym. #2 doesn't have the titanic proportions of the First or the vaunting ambitions, so Jurowski's once-over-lightly isn't disastrous. But he finds so little real meaning that I lost interest quickly. It's once thing to streamline a classic in hopes that you are offering a fresh approach. But Jurowski doesn't even seem to have heard Brahms before, much less understood him."
Absolutely enlightening!
William Dodd | Castle Rock, WA USA | 05/23/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"What fabulous performances of these symphonies. I have Jochum, Bohm, Szell, and Klemperer...Plus 1 by Fischer, and 1 with Stokie--- but I am totally blown away by these. There's no law that says you only have to have one person's viewpoint, but you will really miss someting amazing if you don't hear these Jurowski Brahms performances. Absolutely my desert island versions of 1 and 2. Want SACD? Fischer in number one. But these are fabulous.
I recognize that these are different--- and I recognize that some may find little to like, but I love them."
