# Brahms, orchestral works



## Mark60 (Mar 27, 2009)

I would appreciate your opinion about Brahms (symphonies and other) by Chailly/Gewandhausorchester/Decca

thank you


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## billeames (Jan 17, 2014)

They seem a bit lean to me but they are fine, even good. I have favorites as previously mentioned.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Mark60 said:


> I would appreciate your opinion about Brahms (symphonies and other) by Chailly/Gewandhausorchester/Decca
> 
> thank you


Stay away. He's butchered Brahms. Rushed. Oblivious to transition, so that any power implemented is meaningless.

If you appreciate the history of this orchestra, then reach for older cycles. They're not frontrunners, but better than this. Cheers. :tiphat:


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I love Chailly's recent Brahms cycle. I find slow Brahms slightly bizarre and has a kind of emotional detachment when I hear it (but Celibidache's Brahms is great if you want a slow cycle). I think Chailly's Brahms has a crystalline clarity to it that is unsurpassed by no one except for Gardiner.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I love Chailly's recent Brahms cycle. I find slow Brahms slightly bizarre and has a kind of emotional detachment when I hear it (but Celibidache's Brahms is great if you want a slow cycle). I think Chailly's Brahms has a crystalline clarity to it that is unsurpassed by no one except for Gardiner.


Sorry, I don't see any emotional attachment in phrasings that are so, so different/wrong. It's the way Rattle, Gergiev, Wand, Inbal, others get sometimes. You swear they're hearing another work, another composer.

No need for a Celi nod...where nearly all is transition.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I also like Chailly's Brahms, and his is my go-to symphony cycle. But I have some difficulty with Brahms, and suspect that those who naturally love his music might prefer a different approach.


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## Albert7 (Nov 16, 2014)

Chailly's Brahms cycle is the bomb baby.

You can't go wrong with it. A few detractors shouldn't scare you away from a mighty fine reading of the works. Scholarly too.


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## Lord Lance (Nov 4, 2013)

Look, the geezers may be close-minded with a set and fixed approach in mind to what is correct and holy - even if scholarly researched has utterly destroyed their misconceptions, they won't budge of course - you have to suspend any form of expectation and _just listen_. You may be repulsed by it or enjoy it or neither but what matters is giving it a go.

Oh, and listen to Celibidache's EMI/Munich Philharmonic readings of the symphonies while you are at it.

Also oh, don't forget to hear Brahms' transcription of the work for piano, four hands.


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## Musicophile (May 29, 2015)

I really like Chailly on nos. 2-4, it's only on 1 I really love Furtwängler and Klemperer as discussed here:

http://www.talkclassical.com/38349-...ng-brahms.html?highlight=brahms+furtw%E4ngler


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