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 for sheer realisation of musical genius.
More details
How does it compare to the artist's other releases
How does it rate alongside the competition
Cover / Inlay Design and Content
Evaluate this review
How helpful would this review be to someone making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
This product has not yet been reviewed. 
