Eugen Jochum's Brahms
Wed, Oct 31 2012, 6:31PM
I just got the EMI icon box of Eugen Jochum. I have been listening to his Brahms. Simply magnificent. He makes Brahms really sing. In other hands, Brahms can sound thick and stodgy whereas his flexible phrasing makes Brahms sound joyous. It would be interesting to hear what others feel. I am now going to explore his Bruckner. I think Jochum and Bruno Walter are the people who really have the pulse of Brahms. Anand
Wed, Oct 31 2012, 8:14PM
#2
RE: Eugen Jochum's Brahms
Jochum is even more associated with Bruckner than with Brahms, so if you love his style, you're in for a treat.
One word of advice: get the first Bruckner cycle on DG, with the Berliner and Bayern, not the second on EMI (Dresden).
The first cycle features some of the best recordings of - specially - the early symphonies. I've never heard anyone conducting the 1st and 2nd better.
In the 2nd cycle, Jochum becomes a bit too eccentric for my tastes. Irritating habits like crescendi that are accompanied by accelerandi, even if that isn't indicated in the score got on my nerves after frequent listening.
Most people say that the first cycle is better recorded too. You get DG's glorious 60's sound instead of EMI's often muddy and unfocused 70's recordings.
Wed, Oct 31 2012, 9:18PM
#3
RE: Eugen Jochum's Brahms
"get the first Bruckner cycle on DG, with the Berliner and Bayern, not the second on EMI (Dresden)" (50milliarden)
Dear 50milliarden, I think that would be difficult for Anand, who bought like he said the ICON Box from EMI. In my case I prefer also DG box (the 4th is my "Romantic" favourite!), but I think than EMI recordings are good versions too. I was very impressed too with Jochums Beethoven cycle, from 50s, is something similar to hear Karajans 1962 cycle, 10 years before him, and of course very different than contemporary Furtwanglers versions of those works, in I think sometimes dense and dark conceptions. Excuse my english please. oscar.olavarria
Thu, Nov 1 2012, 12:03AM
#4
Ah yes, teaches me to read
Ah yes, teaches me to read people's posts properly before replying :P
So, Dresden Bruckner it is. Still very worth exploring, and of course my preference for the DG cycle is pretty subjective. Just saying - since you mentioned the 4th - that this is one of the symphonies where the "Jochum problem" (crescendo going hand in hand with accelerando) manifests very clear, specially in the first movement.
I very much prefer Böhm for this symphony at least.
Thu, Nov 1 2012, 1:21AM
#5
RE: Eugen Jochum's Brahms
I can fully endorse Tagalie's appreciation for Kempe over Jochum and Walter and some more too.
By the way, try Simone Young's Bruckner on demonstration quality recordings, on OEHMS. She has the difficult task to convince by using the original versions...and she fully delivers.
Parla
Thu, Nov 1 2012, 2:38AM
#6
RE: Eugen Jochum's Brahms
Eugene Jochums Brahms symphonies are of course magnificent performances, but I want to remember to you that the competition is really fierce here!, and I dont want to say Szell, Sanderling, Wand or more recently...Barenboims integral!, I want to mention here Hans Schmidt Issersted-NDR Hamburg Orch, William Steinberg-Pittsburgh (MCA classics), and others, and specially Christoph von Dohnanyi-Clevelands versions, a magnific integral unjustly and inexplicably forgotten, above all if we consider that it is always mentioned in "classicstoday" an other sites like an obligatory reference in this works! About this I ask to you where is Christoph von Dohnanyi to day?, is alive?, is he actually conducting? What do you think about the other integrals mentioned before? Excuse my english please. oscar.olavarria
Fri, Nov 2 2012, 12:04AM
#7
RE: Eugen Jochum's Brahms
Oscar, maestro von Dohnanyi, after concluding his tenure with NDR Symphony Orchestra, he moved back to USA with a view to leading subscription concerts with some leading American Orchestras (BSO, NYSO, Cleveland). You have to bear in mind that he is an old man (he was born in Sept. 1929).
As for Brahms' Symphonies, the field is saturated and I believe is a bit immature to claim that this or that cycle of them is a "reference" recording or much more an "obligatory reference" (if there is such a thing).
Does anybody remember Haitink's Symphonies by Brahms with Boston S.O., on Philips, long ago deleted. That was an unusually good reading of these superb Symphonies.
Parla
I'd rate Kempe over either of them.