SIMON RATTLE/ BERLIN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Brahms, The Symphonies (EMI)
**1/2 (out of 4)
As I mentioned here yesterday, the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra begins its American tour tomorrow. The main attraction on the touring program is Johannes Brahms' symphonies. Not coincidentally, the group and its music director, Simon Rattle, have just released a three-CD box of all four symphonies, recorded live at the Philharmonie in 2008 (for album details, click on the image).
Great conductors bring strong vision to the music they lead. The visual equivalent of what Rattle does here is of someone pushing really hard with oil pastels, making for deep, thick smudges of saturated colour. It has an impact, but it can also come across as gaudy or busy.
Whether in his piano, chamber or orchestral music, Brahms is constantly working interesting little counterpoints in between the anchor in the bass and whatever is rippling on the surface. The interpreter can radically change the sound of the piece simply by emphasizing something different in that vast middle space.
Rattle rummages around in this vast orchestral pantry, and, like someone making their "special" chili, throws everything, including the kitchen sink, into the interpretive pot. For me, it's too much of too much and the music loses its music, becoming instead a series of impeccably executed technical effects.
The orchestra sounds particularly rich and meaty in its home hall, and there's lots of musical drama to love here. But I'll take the low-fat version any day.
Thanks to the magic of YouTube, I can give you an example of what I mean. Rattle first, followed by an alternative I prefer.
Here is the Berlin Philharmonic performing the opening to Brahms' Symphony No. 4, as conducted by Simon Rattle:
Now listen to the graceful, elegant music made by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Kurt Masur (way back in 1991):
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