That exceptional purity and clarity of sound characterizing the original LP here again on CD seems to give a special gleam to the piano. As I suggested before, balance slightly goes against Harrell's glorious but not outsize tone in one or two instances, though in compensation you hear things in the piano part that double your admiration from Brahm's keyboard writing—thanks, of course, to Ashkenazy, assuredly one of the most imaginative partners I've ever heard in these sonatas. Like RL, who reviewed the original Rostropovich/Serkin LP, I feel that the warmly resonant DG sound is not quite so refined as that of the Decca disc, though it goes without saying that their Brahms, in its (sometimes) more leisurely, full-bodied romantic way, is just as persuasive as the lither composer presented by Harrell and Ashkenazy.
The Jucker/Giger performance on Accord is not quite in the same class, partly because of that over-close recording noted by MEO in his original review, but also because of phrasing less revelatory and tone less lustrous.'