Brahms - Symphony No. 2; Tragic Overture ; Academic Festival Overture. Budapest Festival Orchestra, Iván Fischer Channel Classics CCS SA 33514 SACD
Classics Today says: "For the first three movements, this is as lovely and smart a performance of Brahms’ Second Symphony as you’ll ever hope to hear. Fischer opens the work at a perfect, flowing tempo, full of latent energy. He shapes the exposition’s broad musical paragraphs masterfully, with the lead-back to the repeat so subtly phrased that you may not realize that it’s happening until it has already occurred. The Adagio, too, has such poise and nobility, with string playing of superhuman purity and woodwind chords so luminously balanced you’d think they’re coming from another world. In the Allegretto grazioso third movement, “graciousness” is what you get, but not without effortless athleticism in the quick trio sections." The recordings are very lifelike, especially the Academic Festival Overture.
Brahms Cello Sonatas: Cello Sonata No. 1 In E Minor, Op. 38; Cello Sonata No. 2 in F major, Op. 99; Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78 (Arr. P. Klengel for cello and piano). Torleif Thedéen (cello) & Roland Pöntinen (piano) BIS SACD1606
Gramophone says: "Torleif Thedéen and Roland Pöntinen's performances here are on a grand scale, with opulent tone highlighted by a splendid recording ... There's refinement and delicacy aplenty, too." This is a state of the art recording. Via my sound system, the cello and the piano sounded real and immediate. The two instruments have a rich warm sound and are full bodied and resonant.
Beethoven Symphony no 4 B flat major; Symphony no 6 in F major, 'Pastoral' Budapest Festival Orchestra / Ivan Fischer Channel Classics CCS SA 30710 SACD (A Relisten)
To me, this recording of the 4th symphony is the best in performance and sound. Phil Gold of Enjoy the Music says it all: "Fischer brings all the brilliant rhythmic excitement of both Gardiner and Toscanini together with the warmth and grandeur of Klemperer. The Budapest Festival Orchestra just sounds so coherent, so immersed in the text, so careful to bring clarity at whatever speed the conductor imposes, that the listener can just sit back and revel in the delicious orchestration and grand sweep of the design, knowing no punches will be pulled, no phrasing will be mishandled, no point making imposed. It's a magical balance that's been achieved here, born directly from scrupulous discipline and attention to detail, combined with the crystal-clear shaping of the musical structures--that Klemperer-like quality that is reincarnated in Fischer."
Johannes BRAHMS Symphony No 2 in D Op.73 (1877) Tragic Overture Op.81 (1880) Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra/Hans Vonk
PENTATONE CLASSICS PTC 5186 042 SACD (Meitner ADC-8 mk IV DSD AD Converter) (A Relisten)
The sound on this disc is excellent - transparent and three-dimensional. The playing is refined, detailed and passionate.
