Ces disques de Brahms d'un prix modique, sont vraiment à recommander. J'avais cherché un coffret de cette intégrale mais sans succès, d'où l'achat de ces quatre cd. Mais, en attendant cette interprétation, qui peut parler de lourdeur dans la musique de Brahms? On peut certes aimer des versions dans une approche plus traditionnelle ( Karajan en 1964 ou Sanderling ou Schmidt-Isserstedt... ). Mais à côté de ces références, il faut saluer une lecture plus humaine, moins rigide et pourtant rigoureuse.
While listening to XM Satellite Radio this evening, I was reading "The Long Journey: Fire and Ice," by Johannes Jensen, a Danish author who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1944 (what an odd/awful year to pick up a Nobel!). "Fire and Ice" is the first volume of the two-volume "Long Journey" and deals with the evolution of "people of the (Scandinavian) north" from being mere animals to the achievement of a vague self-awareness over many years.
Along comes the Brahms Third on the radio, with Marin Alsop and the London Philharmonic. By the end of the first movement, I had put down the book and was listening to an riveting performance of the old warhorse. What particularly struck me is how, under Alsop's direction of a fabulously responsive orchestra, the Third revealed rumbling undertones of the primitive lives Jensen had been describing for me in meticulous detail. There was a bottom layer in Alsop's interpretation of what Carl Jung might have called the collective unconscious at work, something I had been quite unprepared for in Brahms.
How this native of Manhattan could plumb the depths of Brahms (and European myth) is a mystery, but plumb it she did. I hate to make comparisons, but Alsop's Brahms Third revealed layers of Scandinavian (or perhaps Teutonic?) myth that the great Richard Wagner labored to produce in his Tristan and Dutchman, among others. The difference? The Brahms came forth naturally to reveal its secrets, while Wagner now seems to me to have been trying too hard, so to speak--perhaps more Apollonian than Dionysian.
5つ星のうち3.0A great performance with substandard sound
2021年1月31日にカナダでレビュー済み
Amazonで購入
This is one of the greatest performances of this symphony I have heard. Unfortunately, the sound is muddied and substandard. Can't believe that such a modern recording can come with such unclear and unimpactful sound. What a pity.
Regarding Marin Alsop's version of Brahm's Third and the Haydn Variations, first the good news. The recorded sound is beautiful and detailed, the orchestral playing is superb, and the interpretation is thoughtful and personal. I found the brisk and detailed performance of the Haydn Variations to be quite enjoyable, displaying Brahms the Classicist in good form. Now, the bad news. The interpretation of the third symphony, while personal and even individualistic, has its exciting moments, but seems somewhat understated at times, and leaves me a bit underwhelmed. While Reiner (my favorite performance), Szell, and even Haitink revel in Brahms' syncopations, Alsop does not, in my opinion, and the performance becomes more soft-edged as a result - a defensible choice, perhaps, but not mine (or theirs). The tempo marking of the first mvmt. is "allegro con brio" not "allegro moderato". Alsop begins with two almost mournful chords and proceeds allegro moderato, although she does whip up some excitement later in the movement. Reiner is definite "con brio", while Haitink is more "maestoso", but solid and granitic in a Klemperer sort of way that works well in spite of the slightly slower tempo. Alsop's second and third mvmts are a bit lightweight (classical?)and quick, and come across similarly as "Intermezzo I&II". This approach does not do justice to the gorgeous melody of mvmt 3. The last mvmt is quite well done, however. This recording will never be my favorite. The other three take precedence. Overall, I give four stars at most.