Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. 1. Un poco sostenuto - Allegro
2. 2. Andante sostenuto
3. 3. Un poco allegretto e grazioso
4. 4. Adagio - Pi� andante - Allegro non troppo, ma con brio

Disc 2:

1. 1. Allegro non troppo
2. 2. Adagio non troppo
3. 3. Allegretto grazioso (Quasi andantino) - Presto ma non troppo
4. 4. Allegro con spirito
5. Chorale (St. Anthony)
6. 1. Poco pi� animato
7. 2. Pi� vivace
8. 3. Con moto
9. 4. Andante con moto
10. 5. Vivace
11. 6. Vivace
12. 7. Grazioso
13. 8. Presto non troppo
14. Finale

Disc 3:

1. 1. Allegro con brio - Un poco sostenuto - Tempo 1
2. 2. Andante
3. 3. Poco allegretto
4. 4. Allegro - Un poco sostenuto

Disc 4:

1. 1. Allegro non troppo
2. 2. Andante moderato
3. 3. Allegro giocoso
4. 4. Allegro energico e passionato

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #618410 in Music
• Released on: 1997-04-22
• Number of discs: 4

Amazon.com
Christoph Eschenbach's Brahms was generally savaged by the critics, which is a pity because it's very sincere and full of personality. Interpretively, it stands squarely in the German Romantic mode of conductors like Wilhelm Furtwängler and Hermann Abendroth--thick, heavy textures, lots of speeding up and slowing down, and heaps of self-indulgent lyricism. It's magnificently played and recorded, and decidedly not the sort of thing for people who view Brahms as a "classicist." But taken on its own terms, it's hard not to be won over by Eschenbach's conviction and love of the music. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews

Well-done, powerful, precise, yet expressive, never mushy
I have become a Brahms fan in the last few years, partly because of the good privilege of having Eschenbach as our conductor in Houston for these 11 years. Eschenbach makes every detail come forth. Even with his great expressiveness and lyricism that are so much a part of Brahms, Eschenbach never sounds mushy (like one recording I heard today), one reason I used to find Brahms dreadfully boring. Eschenbach brings out the rich sounding bass, one feature that sets Brahms apart from other composers. Eschenbach also performs with a high level of energy, an important part of German music. Eschenbach's Brahms tempos admittedly are slow (his live performance of the German Requiem in 1990 ran over 80 minutes), but given everything else he has to offer, it brings a dimension that helped transform Brahms from dreadfully boring to one of my top 3 (Heinrich Schütz and Bach are the other 2).