Brahms : Symphony 4 - Haydn : Symphony 101

Album review

These concert recordings give the lie in stunning style to the reputation for slowness which has dogged the great Otto Klemperer. The image of a partially-paralysed old man directing Beethoven's symphonies at a deathly slow pace is dispelled by these two concert versions of Symphony No.101 "The Clock" by Haydn and Symphony No.4 by Brahms recorded in Munich in 1956 and 1957, with the excellent Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, one of Germany's best.

Here is a perfectly-balanced Haydn, both biting and joyful. The opening Presto launches with sparkling élan, and sets the tone for the whole album. It reminds us how, in his youth, Otto Klemperer had always been a conductor ready to take to the barricades for contemporary music, and to play the great works of the repertoire with a style whose grandeur was only rivalled by its vivacity.

His vision of the Fourth Symphony by Brahms alternates between a sense of immensity (Allegro giocoso) and a versatility in terms of tempo that most conductors today wouldn't dare tackle. He cleverly structures the Finale, to underscore the thread linking Brahms and the contrapuntists of musical history, the crowning summit of which writing being a Bach cantata and the use of a passacaglia that holds together the whole magisterial performance. Starting at a relatively moderate tempo, the movement reaches its climax, as Brahms instructs on the score (Più Allegro), in a fateful and liberating whirlwind. © François Hudry/Qobuz

Details of original recording : Live recordings, München, Herkulessaal : 26 & 27 September 1957 (Brahms), 18 & 19 October 1956 (Haydn)