Brahms: Sérénades

Album review

The two Brahms Serenades were the composer's first orchestral works, and they are often presented in program notes and the like as preparatory exercises before the composer undertook the symphony genre. Brahms may indeed have thought of them this way, for he was intimidated by Beethoven's example and did not write his first symphony until he was 43. However, they are also wonderful works on their own terms, and the composer esteemed them highly. They are light works that might be thought of as founding documents of neoclassicism, and giving them too much weight drains the life out of them. Conductor Victor Julien-Laferrière avoids this in his delicate readings with his new Orchestre Consuelo, and he even goes well to the opposite direction, with tamped-down but still graceful performances. Is this "French" Brahms, making him sound a bit like Saint-Saëns? Maybe, and listeners can make up their own minds about it. For an idea, compare the final movement of the Serenade No. 1 in D major, Op. 11, with the performance by Riccardo Chailly and the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig. Neither conductor digs too far into the galloping rhythm, but Chailly's reading has more urgency. Julien-Laferrière's interpretation is beautifully executed by the players, and this makes one want to hear more from this new group. Mirare's studio sound is a bit boxy.
© James Manheim /TiVo