Beethvon & Salmanov: Fourth Symphonies

Advantages: Subtle, Expressive, Beautiful Performances
Disadvantages: Pricey but worth the cost

...Every classical music fan will probably have a collection of Brahm's four symphonies around somewhere, but for tonal clarity, poetic beauty and the milking of every orchestral and melodic subtlety I have heard no better than Karajan's rendition with the BPO. The first is clear and bright, with a truly haunting adagio and nice pace to the finale. There are other performances of the 2nd that I prefer, but this gave me new insights into the form, Karajan paying particular attention to crisply defined structure rather than over-Romanticising Brahms' score. The highlight, however, has to be the tumultuously powerful 4th symphony, in which both form and drama fuse marvellously, especially at the culminating final moments of the first and fourth movements. Forget the lower rate orchestral versions around the web, this is worth every penny... Read review

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Advantages: Choral Symphony
Disadvantages: Nothing

.... In the secong movement of this Simphony "Motto and Vivace" was introducing with wind intruments and then cord instrument who plays a 1/2 time musical note with ithe sound of the timbal and then continues with a soft movement. Besides of this in this 10 minute music the timbal plays only three times and fouth with a characteristical sound in this movement. The third movement "Adagio molto a cantabile" is a movement with soft sounds of cord instrument like violas, violin and contrabass specially, that was interrumpted two times with a trumped song like a military song in 14 minute music. Besides of this description at the begining ot this movement in a concert the singer will sing on the 4th movement enter at the scene, preparing their song. The fourth movement "Presto - Allegro assai" kwoning "joy song" is the Choral part of this symphony , so... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Varied movements, esp. 1st and 4th. One of Mahler's most popular works.
Disadvantages: 2nd movement a little weak.

...--- INTRODUCTION --- Mahler is classified as a late Romantic composer, producing dramatic scores with large differences in sounds and tone and utilizing many emotions ranging from tragedy and humour to love. Mahler's fourth symphony was first performed in Munich in 1901 and was/is one of Mahler's most popular works. It is described that this symphony was created during an 1899 holiday to the countryside where he would find peace and quiet. However for unknown reasons the tranquility he wanted wasn't present and he feared that the concentration he needed to compose may have left him. It wasn't until he had 10 days left of the trip that inspiration finally grasped him and out of this anxious period came one of Mahler's more happier pieces. Other priorities initially overtook him and it wasn't until his next excursion that he was able... Read review

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