HMMMMM!

Well, it is amazing what this recording has done among music lovers. And one thing is certain that this is no usual Brahms recording. On the contrary is a pretty remarkable happening in the recorded music history.

Now, let us consider the time of its appearance. It is 1981, some good years after almost all mentioned here as real Brahms achievers, at least on disc, were gone. Neither Furtwangler, Walter, Schuricht or Mengelberg were amongst us for a while then. So this recording came, in my opinion on a very dry land as far as good Brahms interpretations were considered. I might upset some here but Karajan and Abbado are far from understanding enough of Brahms to be real contenders here (Karajan judged well that the strings of Berliner can make a very beautiful sound with parts of this compositions). Giulini was doing a fine job even though he wasn't able to go really to the heart of this music.

So, here comes mister Kleiber who makes a new case for Brahms as an outstanding composer. A recording that entered the Big League completely worthy. All the sense, drama and music of the symphony were there, the Wiener played superbly (as they do not all the time). Kleiber masters the music and his orchestra, his control is complete and as usual his artistic intelligence takes out in the open all what is buried within the notes of this symphony. And he does it so energetically with such crispness and control, as many mentioned here. And I think that is where the whole thing suffers from my point of view.

It is true that Brahms' music is tragic and full of human passions and conflicting feelings. But can you really see the big bearded man as being so crisp, so precise in his burst of energy, so "modern" lets say? I cannot. And that's why I am missing in this recording the warmth and deep yet intense and demanding expression of "humanity" you find in Walter or the very natural and less controlled yet more powerful dramatic accents you find in Furtwangler. For me, here, between these two, one can find the ultimate expression of Brahms, as a complete musical and human experience.

Mr Kleiber gets four stars for understanding and expressing everything so well, with such perfection but is denied the last star for being to perfect and calculated. Briskness is not something that helps in Brahms in my opinion. As well as two focused energy.

Try to listen as many recordings as possible to get the one that really "sings Brahms" to you.