Brahms: Symphony No. 3 in F; Academic Festival Overture
Published:
COMPOSERS: Brahms
LABELS: EMI
WORKS: Symphony No. 3 in F; Academic Festival Overture
PERFORMER: London Philharmonic Orchestra/Wolfgang Sawallisch
CATALOGUE NO: CDC 7 54523 2 DDD
Brahms’s music is among the least responsive to those virtuoso conductors who want to make an effect. The finest performances will be those where the interpretation allows the music to unfold under its own momentum.
Just such an interpretation is Sawallisch’s new reading of the Third Symphony with the LPO. Conductor and orchestra do not fuss with the music, yet the utmost expressive concentration is achieved, and the most passionate feeling. The sensational trombone crescendo in the Finale an rarely have been more thrillingly delivered, and the orchestra creates a texture of sustained richness and clarity throughout. Anthony Payne