Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen reviews

The instant we hear the luminously pure wind chorale opening Brahms’s Second Symphony, we know we are in safe hands. All the hallmarks that distinguished Paavo Järvi’s Schumann cycle with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie are here: airy, vibrato-free strings, subtly-hued winds and natural horns. It’s worth noting that he uses the latest Henle urtext edition. The playing is crisp and alert, though not always fluent:  the first movement waltzes have an idiomatic lilt, but the gears grind clumsily at the transition to the next episode.