Brahms Thrives with Masur in New York

If my initial impressions of the Warner Classics 70-CD anthology of recordings made by conductor Kurt Masur were somewhat lukewarm with regard to his approaches to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven, the performances of the music of Johannes Brahms are more consistent and compelling. As previously observed, this collection will be released tomorrow; and Amazon.com is still taking pre-orders for the product. Bearing in mind that several of the Brahms CDs share space with other composers, there is roughly six CDs worth of Brahms content, which is about the same amount of attention given to the Mozart-Beethoven offerings.

While the account is not thorough, it is definitely more systematically comprehensive. All four of the symphonies are included, along with the music that tends to be added to the four-symphonies albums: the Opus 56a (orchestral version) of the so-called “Haydn Variations” (not Haydn’s theme but one he had appropriated for his own music) and the two overtures, “Academic Festival” (Opus 80) and “Tragic” (Opus 81). Only two of the concertos are included in the Warner Collection, the Opus 77 violin concerto in D major with soloist Sarah Chang and the Opus 83 (second) piano concerto in B-flat major with Elisabeth Leonskaja at the keyboard. The remaining selections are vocal, the Opus 24 “Schicksalslied (song of destiny) and the Opus 45, given the title “Ein deutsches Requiem,” setting Biblical texts in German, rather than the Latin liturgy. The choral resources for both of these selections were provided by the Westminster Choir with soprano Sylvia McNair and baritone Håkan Hagegård as soloists in Opus 45.

To my somewhat pleasant surprise, almost all of these selections were performed by the New York Philharmonic. The only exceptions are the concerto recordings. The piano concerto was performed with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the violin concerto with the Dresden Philharmonic. (Both of these recordings were made after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of East and West Germany.) When I lived on the East Coast, my encounters with the New York Philharmonic were minimal, since I spent more time at the 92nd Street Y and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Mind you, I have other recordings of all of these Brahms selections. Nevertheless, Masur’s attention to detail in both phrasing and dynamics seized my attention from the beginning of each composition and never let go. The fact is that I go into any performance of symphonic Brahms wondering just how attentive the conductor is to all the subtle details lurking on the score pages. Sadly, I never had an opportunity to listen to Masur perform Brahms in concert, since I was never in the right place at the right time. These recordings, particularly the ones made in New York, made it clear that I did not know what I was missing.