Search - Johannes Brahms, Leonard Slatkin, James Levine :: Brahms: Academic Festival Overture; Symphony No. 1; Variations on a Theme by Haydn (RCA Victor Basic 100, Vol. 18)

Levine gives his best Brahms in an early, overlooked recordi

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 05/19/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's a shame so many of James Levine's early (late 70s, early 80s) recordings for RCA are out of print. I haven't heard his other Brahms with the Chicago Sym., but this Sym. #1 is full of passion and imagination. Like his mentor Szell, Levine keeps the tempo moving and insists on disciplined string ensemble, but there's more emotion and inner life here than Szell generally displayed. Yet somehow Szell's Brahms cycle is considered a classic while Levine's is largely unavailable.



At least RCA has given us this First Sym., which is recorded with dramatic up-closeness. The impact of the sound boosts the excitement of an already propulsive, heart-on-sleeve reading. Only in the knife-edge finale does the sound become too brash. By contrast, the opening Academic Festival Over. from the well-meaning but somnolent Slatkin is totally forgetable, as is the other filler, Ormandy's proficient, beautifully played Haydn Variations, made in his drowsy autumnal switch from Columbia to RCA.



P.S. -- I subsequently discovered that the complete Levine Brahms cycle from Chicago is available online in good remastered sound from Japanese HMV. A cause to rejoice."