Mariss Jansons, here, is in one sense the victim of his own finest qualities, for although he delineates and articulates Brahms with the utmost care, that same conscientiousness tends to underline the more contentious elements in Joachim’s 16-minute Overture to Heinrich IV. Malcolm MacDonald’s excellent note usefully reminds us that ‘when Brahms first encountered him in 1853 he considered Joachim a far more important composer than himself’. An amazing thought, though one should perhaps remember the Fourth Symphony was still some 32 years away.
Joachim’s startled opening makes an immediate impression, but once the action begins to unfold (the story-line is based on translated Shakespeare) an element of long-windedness suggests that the composer might profitably have telescoped his arguments. There are nice ideas, the best of them donning a Mendelssohnian effervescence, but the sum effect is of elevated waffle.
The performance of the Symphony parades many of the qualities that I so admired in its predecessor (a Simax/Jansons coupling of the Second and Third Symphonies). The first movement is its best feature. Each episode is invested with shape and meaning: small dynamic gestures attest to careful planning (I’m thinking in particular of the tiny wind crescendo just prior to the blossoming string phrase at 2'39''), especially in terms of the contrasts between staccato and legato strings. It’s a performance with direction, though the temperature takes a slight dip beyond the first movement.
Jansons makes a warm statement of the Andante moderato and he appreciates the Scherzo’s lusty ‘heigh-ho’ (too many conductors miss out on its swagger). The finale is nicely gauged, although the live recording occasionally lacks clarity, especially when it focuses on subsidiary wind parts. As I’ve already suggested, the first movement’s promise isn’t quite realised – the structure is sound but the lighting has dimmed – although a bonding intelligence remains intact. I note that the recording is compiled from two live concerts and there’s just an outside chance that the loss I’m sensing occurred in the switches from one to the other. It’s a tricky business, this process of amalgamating performances. Each has its own aura, pace and feel, and the subtlest deviation of mood tends to spoil the overall effect.
Single-disc stereo Fourths are fairly thick on the shelves, but for my money Blomstedt, Szell and Sanderling remain top for insight, while the best of the rest are for the most part incorporated into indivisible complete cycles, which is another matter entirely.'