Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Herbert Blomstedt
Maestro Herbert Blomstedt and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig continue their integral Brahms symphonies project with a recording of the composer’s Second Symphony in D Major, alongside his Academic Festival Overture. Although idyllic and pastoral at first sight, Brahms himself remarked that he had “never written anything so sad”.
Blomstedt and the orchestra bring out all the different moods and colours of this exceptional work, while the Academic Festival Overture provides a jubilant, glorious conclusion.Blomstedt’s work as a conductor is inseparably linked to his religious and human ethos, and his interpretations combine great faithfulness to the score and analytical precision with a soulfulness that awakens the music to pulsating life. In the more than sixty years of his career, he has acquired the unrestricted respect of the musical world. The Gewandhausorchester Leipzig is the oldest civic orchestra in the world with a glorious history, and is still counted among the world’s leading ensembles. Their PENTATONE debut with Brahms’ First Symphony and Tragic Overture (2020) received rave reviews.
Blomstedt takes a decidedly autumnal view of Brahms’s Second Symphony – and he has every right to do so...His lingering account of the first movement alone occupies well over 20 minutes…With glowing playing throughout from the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra it’s hard not to enjoy this affectionate and superbly recorded new version.
Throughout, the Leipzig orchestra play magnificently and, to my ears, with far more depth and character than they did for Chailly in his Gramophone Award-winning set.
His Brahms Symphony No 2 & Academic Festival Overture with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra is fresh, lithe and generous, and surpasses this partnership’s first in the cycle, Symphony No 1 & Tragic Overture.
the special glory of Blomstedt’s thoughtful interpretation is its emotional resonance...Blomstedt shows us its beauty, but equally unveils its dark melancholy, particularly felt in bridging passages pursued at hesitant speeds. This is a performance that should last.
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