Brahms a Little Less “Modest” than Bruckner!

Some readers may recall that yesterday’s article about the Warner box set of the recordings made by Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam was described as a “modest” account of Anton Bruckner, because it was limited to two of his early symphonies. It turns out that Harnoncourt’s attention to Johannes Brahms was only slightly less “modest,” if not surprising. The content consists of four concertos on three CDs; and I have to confess that I felt a bit frustrated that none of the four symphonies were included in the collection. Mind you, having now listened to those four concertos, I am happy enough to take what I received, which amounts to new perspectives on compositions that have been familiar to me for quite some time.

Cover design for the concerto album begin discussed, showing both conductor and piano soloist (from the Amazon.com Web page for this CD album)

The first two CDs account for the composer’s two piano concertos: Opus 15 in D minor and Opus 83 in B-flat major. By way of personal digression, I would like to observe that Opus 83 was one of the earliest releases by Columbia on a “long playing” (LP) disc. When my parents bought their first LP player, it came with a few Columbia albums, one of which was Opus 83. My enthusiasm for that concerto resulted in one of my earliest purchases of a pocket score for the music. The pianist on that album was Rudolf Serkin.

By way of digression, I have to confess that I am looking forward to Garrick Ohlsson playing Opus 15 this Friday (in the hopes that there will be a performance). According to my archives, the last time it was performed was in November of 2022 when conductor Michael Tilson Thomas led the San Francisco Symphony with Emanuel Ax at the keyboard. However, while Opus 83 has tended to be the more popular of the two concertos, my last encounter with it in Davies Symphony Hall was even earlier, in April of 2019 when, again, Emanuel Ax was soloist, this time under the baton of Andrey Boreyko.

In the Harnoncourt performances both concertos have Rudolf Buchbinder as soloist. In the past I have been more familiar with him as a recital soloist, having written this past June about his Song Transcriptions CD, accounting for solo piano transcriptions of 28 songs by Franz Schubert. I had the opportunity to see him as a concerto soloist in Davies Symphony Hall, but that was back in October of 2016, when Michael Tilson Thomas conducted the San Francisco Symphony in a performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 466 piano concerto in D minor. Sadly, that concerto was not included in the Harnoncourt recordings.

The final Brahms CD in the box set accounts for two Brahms concertos, both with Gidon Kremer as violin soloists. The first of these is the composer’s only violin concerto, Opus 77 in D major. This is followed by the Opus 102 “Double Concerto,” the second soloist being cellist Clemens Hagen. Both of these concertos are personal favorites, and I continue to enjoy opportunities to listen to Kremer. Nevertheless, I have to wonder why it is that Harnoncourt decided to shy away from any of the four symphonies. I would have thought that such recordings would make for interesting compare-and-contrast listening when paired with the Bruckner recordings!