Comparison Recordings of the Symphony
#1:
Charles Munch, Boston SO [ADD] RCA/BMG
7812-2-RV
Maurice Abravanel, Utah SO Silverline
[ADD] DVD-Audio 288237-9
Eugen Jochum, LPO EMI LP SLS 5093 [SQ
Quadrophonic disk]
Comparison Recordings of the Academic
Festival Overture
Eugen Jochum, LPO EMI LP SLS 5093 [SQ
Quadrophonic disk]
Stokowski, New Philh. Orch. RCA [ADD
Dolby Surround CD] 09026-62514-2
Antal Dorati, Minneapolis SO Mercury
[mono] LP
Comparison Recordings of the Tragic
Overture.
Charles Munch, Boston SO [ADD] RCA/BMG
09026-60682-2
Eugen Jochum, LPO EMI LP SLS 5093 [SQ
Quadrophonic disk]
The evolution of the
Brahms First Symphony can be
traced back to the time of Handel. Some
authorities are convinced Handel wrote
God Save the King, others that
it was by John Bull, others say it was
an old folk-song utilised by both composers
in their works. However it arose, the
emergence of an English National hymn
made the Emperor of Austria jealous
so Franz Joseph Haydn wrote one for
him, putting it in the second movement
of a string quartet. Mozart in his "Jupiter"
Symphony (so named by the English
impresario Salomon and eagerly seconded
by Mozart’s surviving family) used an
old Gregorian church tune (strikingly
similar to the B.A.C.H. motif, but that’s
another story) to write a fugal testament
in the last movement, some say as a
special favour to the Emperor, or as
a memorial to his father Leopold. In
the Beethoven Sixth Symphony
the fifth and final movement is a hymn
of thanksgiving, and the tune in the
last movement of Beethoven’s Ninth
Symphony is now the anthem of the
European Union.
Felix Mendelssohn’s
Second Symphony was a choral
symphony written in a clumsy attempt
to comment on Beethoven. It was for
his third numbered symphony (actually
his twelfth), the "Scottish,"
that Mendelssohn found a Big Tune worthy
of the form, a tune that sings in the
last movement. In his Fifth Symphony,
Mendelssohn wrote his own "Jupiter"
Symphony with a fugal finale on a hymn
tune.
Johannes Brahms was
heard to complain about what a difficult
act all this was to follow, but had
early on considered it his duty to continue
this progression. Four times he set
out to write something in the symphonic
form — Opp. 11, 15, 16, and 34 — and
four times he chickened out, thinned
out the music and scored it for reduced
ensemble. For "Symphony #1"
Opus 68 he settled on the Mendelssohnian
model and the rest is history. The Big
Tune from the last movement was not
officially a hymn, but it was adopted
by the rival high school in my home
town as their alma mater, and
must have suffered this fate in many
other instances as well.*
(Brahms wrote his own
"Jupiter" as his Fourth
Symphony, using as the last movement
not a fugue but a passacaglia on a similar
chromatic theme borrowed almost intact
from the ciaccona in the Bach
150th cantata. Why he avoided the fugue
form in this instance is not clear since
he wrote many very fine fugues throughout
his career. It is possible that he was
not afraid of being compared to Bach
or Beethoven, but shrank from a comparison
to Mozart. At any rate, as with Mozart,
this was a good place to quit and no
fifth symphony ever appeared.)
Of the First Symphony,
Alsop’s is a poised, perfectly balanced
performance. Tempi are from moment to
moment right on the button which allows
the magnificent long dramatic phrases
to build with deliberate power and shattering
resolution. In the slow movement, the
long lyric phrases sing without effort.
Because of the exceptional clarity of
the high resolution versions of this
recording, details can be easily heard
without requiring excessive accenting,
as we’ve been used to in older recordings.
Brahms’ huge orchestra does not merge
into a bathtub full of sound, but remains
clearly delineated from the lowest strings
to the highest flute as it doubles the
strings. Instrumental solos are uniformly
superb. I think that the child Brahms
is represented in the symphonies by
the orchestral flute, and many performances
of these symphonies have failed because
of weak, unmotivated flute solos; here
the flute is a confident bird, but a
fragile bird nonetheless. Brahms may
have been an agnostic, but God is in
the horns, and they shine here with
particular lustre.
As an adult Schumann
had two imaginary comrades and some
of his music consists of dialogues between
these two sides of his personality.
This may have rubbed off a little on
Brahms, because he wrote the Tragic
Overture and the Academic Festival
Overture at the same time, expressing
complementary sides of his nature. The
Tragic Overture is alternately
spooky, gloomy, raging and depressed.
Those who would dispute the Mendelssohn-Brahms
connection that I made above might just
listen to the trumpet-calls in the Tragic
Overture. There are whole passages
that could have come straight out of
the Fingal’s Cave Overture. Mendelssohn
in Fingal’s Cave was expressing
awe at the overwhelming mystery and
power of nature; how literally does
Brahms intends us to take these embedded
quotations from Mendelssohn’s work?**
The Academic Festival Overture
is relaxed, expressing a sense of fun
and high humour. Brahms never went to
university, and there may be more than
a little regretful fantasy in this bit
of college high-jinx.
Even though the Silverline
DVD-Audio is in 96/24 instead of 48/24,
the sound is less transparent, the strings
sounding shrill, but overall very effective.
Abravanel’s performance is very good,
the orchestra play with precision and
punch, the soloists are excellent, but
overall the performance is not quite
so tense nor so dramatic as Alsop’s.
Abravanel does not observe the first
movement exposition repeat, but Alsop
does; I can take it or leave it, although
some people feel they’re not getting
their full money’s worth unless all
repeats are observed.
The 1977 Jochum set
with the same orchestra may exist in
the vaults as a four channel master
and may some day appear as an EMI DVD-Audio
or SACD. The LPO play a little more
incisively for Jochum; this may be mostly
because there was more money in the
budget for rehearsals, retakes and editing.
Jochum’s performance is a classic German
approach, and, yes, he takes the first
movement exposition repeat; some will
think he starts out too slow and too
deliberate, but he generates tremendous
excitement at the finish. These performances
have been issued on CD, but I have not
heard them in that format.
My favourite recording
of the Academic Festival Overture
for 50 years has been the Dorati version
with the Minneapolis SO, for the tremendous
energy, excitement, and percussive impact.
Unfortunately, neither I nor the strident
monophonic sound are anywhere near so
attractive now as they were back then.
Stokowski’s 1974 version, originally
available on a four channel CD-4 disk,
is very exciting and wide-range, but
unfortunately a little shy on impact,
although turning up the bass control
does help; hopefully we will see it
on an RCA surround sound SACD soon.
Alsop’s Academic
Festival Overture is really best
of all, as close to a perfect performance
as will ever occur although in the finale
on the DVD-Audio tracks the timpani
accents are little tame for my taste.
Turning up the bass control — if you
can do that — helps. The Hybrid SACD,
dts, and CD tracks seem a little
better, although the dts tracks
on this DVD-Audio disk are disappointing,
not much better than the Dolby Surround
or CD tracks. I’m unable to detect any
audible difference between the CD tracks
on the CD-only release and the CD tracks
on the hybrid SACD release. In contrast
to some earlier Naxos releases the bass
frequencies are not attenuated on this
CD release. The screen display on the
DVD-Audio disk is a pleasing soft shifting
red-yellow-white pattern.
The surround sound
on this release is very satisfactory,
especially on the high resolution formats.
During quieter passages it is strongly
front-focused, but when the volume of
the orchestra increases, the reverberant
sound expands to fill the space. The
Dolby Surround on the Stokowski release
is all but undetectable, certainly no
better than the usual fake surround
one gets from playing 2.0 channel disks
through the surround decoder, which
is how I almost always listen to two
channel CDs. Pretty much the same with
the Jochum disks; although I am no longer
set up to play SQ disks, my recollection
is that this is a strongly front-centred
surround sound balance with rear channel
ambient information.
If forced at gun-point
to say something disparaging about this
performance, I could comment that Brahms
was an artistically violent man. Charles
Munch achieves violent power in razor
sharp peak dramatic accents. But Marin
Alsop betters him in the lyrical passages;
at times with her the music blooms,
sighs, sings. Their tempi are all but
identical, phrase by phrase. So who
is better? I wouldn’t do without both.
There are several places where the LPO
string attacks are not exactly together,
not exactly on the beat. I expect absolute
perfection from English orchestras;
no forgiveness.
The box notes suggest
signing on to www.naxos.com/marin/brahms-symphonies
for a recorded interview with Marin
Alsop, however I couldn’t get this link
to work.
*My high school used
new words set to something resembling
"Nearer my God to thee."
**In the fourth movement
development section listen for echoes
of Mendelssohn’s Fifth Symphony.
Paul Shoemaker
see reviews By
Patrick
Waller, Colin
Clarke and Peter
Lawson
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Marin Alsop 
NAXOS 5.110077 [72.32] 
NAXOS 6.110077 [72.42] 
