Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Paavo Berglund - Johannes Brahms: The Symphonies (2013) 3CD Set

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Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Paavo Berglund - Johannes Brahms: The Symphonies (2013) 3CD Set

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Like Paavo Berglund’s Sibelius symphony recordings, also with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, these Brahms performances inject a certain novelty that will be appreciated especially by the listener who has wearied of them due to excessive repetition. While these are not radically desiccated renditions in the manner of Chailly or Harnoncourt, the COE’s smaller-scaled string body does require a bit of time at first for your ear to adjust to the thinner timbres. But the reward is a harvest of inner detail, much of it barely audible in full-size orchestral performances (but well captured by Ondine’s vivid recordings), which continually surprises and delights.

Symphony No. 2 once again earns its “sunny” descriptor as the strings offer a sweet singing tone that caresses Brahms’ beautiful melodies. Berglund’s perfectly-judged tempos and immaculately balanced ensemble beguile here, and also in Symphony No. 3, where the elusive first movement’s syncopated bass line and clever contrapuntal writing break through to the sonic surface. The entire symphony sounds so fresh that you couldn’t let your attention wander if you wanted to.

The more austere Fourth Symphony yields less easily to Berglund’s approach: the music wants more heft than the otherwise excellent COE players provide, but the lighter textures show the work in a different light: the first movement now sounds interestingly like one of Brahms’ Hungarian Dances.

Stripping down Symphony No. 1’s traditionally heavy textures (as found with Klemperer, Giulini, Tennstedt, Karajan, et. al) results in a light, lean, and somewhat anemic sound that belies the music’s implied Sturm und Drang. However, Berglund’s quickish pacing and unforced phrasing makes the first movement, and indeed the entire symphony, feel more like one of Brahms’ large-scale chamber works (the Andante sostenuto slow movement especially gains from this treatment). But Berglund, perhaps in trying to avoid making the finale into a “Beethoven’s Tenth”, gives it a rather too-straightforward treatment, making the grand conclusion sound a bit matter-of-fact.

Ultimately, Berglund’s performances constitute an alternative side-trip that fascinates while you are on it, but makes you newly appreciate the burnished warmth and tonal richness of, say, the Vienna Philharmonic or Cleveland Orchestra once you return home. Nonetheless, the recordings are totally worth hearing for their above-mentioned qualities. Recommended.

Review by Victor Carr Jr, ClassicsToday.com

So much Brahms orchestral playing these days is blandly beautiful (or just plain bland) that it’s a relief to hear performances with intelligent attitude like these – even if this isn’t ultimately the Brahms recorded cycle I’d want to live with. The playing of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe is splendidly alert, energetic and disciplined, and the use of a relatively small string section allows more of the wind writing to come through clearly – a gain which strongly outweighs the loss of plush, big-band string tone. Berglund has clearly approached this music with an open, unprejudiced mind. He’s certainly no slave to tradition. The customary heavy slow tread at the opening of the First Symphony is abandoned (Brahms’s ‘un poco sostenuto’ is highly ambiguous) in favour of a more forward-surging tempo; the result is less statuesque, but much more urgent and impassioned. Similarly Berglund rejects the customary broadening at the triumphant return of the chorale towards the end of the finale (Brahms doesn’t indicate any change of tempo) – and it works impressively. There will be fewer surprises in the other three symphonies, though the clear-cut freshness of the phrasing and the clear, carefully placed accents (well caught by the recordings) won’t let the ear wander easily. In the end I found Berglund’s Brahms too stern, too acerbic to recommend as a repeatable listening experience on CD – though in concert these performances would surely challenge and refresh even the most jaded ears. If you must have all the symphonies under one conductor, then Günter Wand with the NDR Symphony Orchestra exhibits all Berglund’s freshness and intelligence but with much more tenderness and sensuous warmth.

Review by Stephen Johnson, BBC Music Magazine

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Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Paavo Berglund - Johannes Brahms: The Symphonies (2013) 3CD Set

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Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Paavo Berglund - Johannes Brahms: The Symphonies (2013) 3CD Set

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