# Brahms 2 & 4 - Munch/BSO



## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Brahms - Symphonies No. 4 & 2
Boston Symphony Orchestra/Munch
RCA Victor "Living Stereo" CD 88697689532

Charles Munch's Boston Symphony Orchestra was a powerful instrument, and this recording contains Brahms' symphonies about as highly charged as they get. I had listened to the Mahler arrangement of Beethoven's 9th symphony only a couple days previously, and was awed by the power and enthusiasm of the finale. Munch and his orchestra bring the finale of the Brahms 4th damn near to that level. In fact, I get an impression of similitude throughout the works; not in the music per se, but in the effects they produce in my mind. How much of that is related to what I have read about Brahms' attitude toward Beethoven I dunno.

This is the redbook CD remastering of the recordings, using the DSD (Direct Stream Digital) process. The sound is fine by me, though some of the reviews at amazon.com knock it. The performances are both from the '50s; who woulda thunk it?

Here is the amazon.com listing:

http://www.amazon.com/Symphonies-No...8&qid=1349715152&sr=1-1&keywords=munch+brahms

I see that I managed not to mention the recording of the 2nd. Do not be alarmed, it is a fine performance, only a minor let-down after hearing the 4th. Seems like Sony would have done better to put the 2nd first on the disc.

If you don't have this recording... it's not expensive.


----------



## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

Munch's Daphnis et Chloe on Living Stereo is a wonderful recording too.


----------



## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Hilltroll72 said:


> Brahms - Symphonies No. 4 & 2
> Boston Symphony Orchestra/Munch
> RCA Victor "Living Stereo" CD 88697689532
> 
> ...


I have quite a few Munch recordings,but I am not so sure that he is the man for Brahms or German composers in general. But the orchestra makes a great sound.
I wonder what it sounds like now?


----------



## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

moody said:


> I have quite a few Munch recordings,but I am not so sure that he is the man for Brahms or German composers in general. But the orchestra makes a great sound.
> I wonder what it sounds like now?


I would agree if you were considering, say, Ansermet, But I consider Munch to have been pretty much 'all-European', with perhaps a leg up on music by Frenchmen.

The BSO, like a lot of orchestras, has gone through several cycles, sometimes deteriorating (according to the word on the street) toward the end of a director's tenure. I am not going to name names, mainly because I can't really separate fact from rumor, or pride from prejudice.


----------



## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

bigshot said:


> Munch's Daphnis et Chloe on Living Stereo is a wonderful recording too.


The St. Saens Sym. No. 3 that JVC remastered is damn fine too.


----------



## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Hilltroll72 said:


> I would agree if you were considering, say, Ansermet, But I consider Munch to have been pretty much 'all-European', with perhaps a leg up on music by Frenchmen.
> 
> The BSO, like a lot of orchestras, has gone through several cycles, sometimes deteriorating (according to the word on the street) toward the end of a director's tenure. I am not going to name names, mainly because I can't really separate fact from rumor, or pride from prejudice.


Most musicians would agree that his speciality is music of the French school.That he conducts with authority and brilliance. Munch seems rather impatient in German music ,where his tempos tend to be very fast and where the expression can be perfunctory. Munch makes no secret of his feeling. Since leaving the Boston Symphony in 1962 he has remained active as a guest conductor and his programmes are almost exclusively French Harold C.Schonberg, "The Great Conductors".
After his time with at Boston he took on the responsibility of building up the French National Orchestra but died shortly after. I have a live recording of him doing Beethoven's Fourth and Seventh Symphonies with the orchestra which are crazy helter-skelter performances. French and Spanish composers yes,German no.
As far as the Organ Symphony is concerned ,I have it but slightly prefer the Detroit/Paray/Mercury version.
As a footnote,one remembers the Heifetz/Muncn Beethoven Violin Concerto recording. Two people more out of sympathy with a composer I cannot imagine.


----------



## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Hah. You are probably aware that I don't care what 'most musicians' think. He did a fine job with the subject Brahms, I say. If you don't agree, I'll meet you out behind the barn. Choice of weapon restricted to agricultural implements.


----------



## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Hilltroll72 said:


> Hah. You are probably aware that I don't care what 'most musicians' think. He did a fine job with the subject Brahms, I say. If you don't agree, I'll meet you out behind the barn. Choice of weapon restricted to agricultural implements.


Some people will never learn!!!I've got him doing Tchaikovsky,Barber,Honegger,Ravel,Saint-Saens,Debussy,Albeniz,Bizet.Ibert,etc.etc. but you want him doing Beethoven and worse Brahms already!! Why when some of the greatest specialists in the German repertoire were contemporaries of his. Also it was my opinion and always has been ,I just used Schonberg as a back-up. Mind you it works the other way,I heard Klemperer's Symphonie Fantastique, it was of the most excruciating experiences of my musical life.
But you can listen to what you wish as always. Don't expect me not to try to save your scrawny neck1
Oh,by the way my weapon will be a combine harvester.


----------



## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

moody said:


> [...]
> But you can listen to what you wish as always. Don't expect me not to try to save your scrawny neck1
> Oh,by the way my weapon will be a combine harvester.


A combine is not an _implement_. You may choose a scythe though. I'll probably go with a hay fork.


----------



## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

moody said:


> Most musicians would agree that his speciality is music of the French school.


I have a couple of Mendelssohn symphonies that he does a particularly fine job on. Haven't heard his Beethoven. I don't think I'd mind Brahms with a faster tempo to tell you the truth.


----------

