Do we need yet another recording of the Brahms Second Symphony???

CDs of the future look to create the sounds past

The current R.E.D. catalogue lists a large number of recordings of this work. I haven't counted them, but the small print runs to over 7.5 inches. This week a new recording hit the doormat here at the shop, prompting the above question.

It has appeared on the Organic Classics label. A new label, certainly. At this early stage in this article, let me say that having heard the CD, the question is not "Do we need yet another recording of the Brahms Second Symphony?" but
"Do we need the other recordings?"

A letter from Mr John Boyden of the Green Label Music Company Ltd outlines some of the thinking behind this venture. A former Managing Director of the LSO, Mr Boyden was instrumental in launching the old Classics for Pleasure label which set many young artists on the path to success among them Andrew Davis, John Lill and a string quartet known as The Lindsay String Quartet.

Fifteen years ago he launched the New Queen's Hall Orchestra who now give concerts outside the system of State funding

"that has caused so much damage. Music is an artistic process best kept from the hands of bureaucrats."

The NQHO's own label consists of single live performances, with no patching sessions and with no attempt to make it sound like a conventional CD. As the Daily Telegraph recently commented:

we are breaking the mould of expectation and delivering something utterly different. The reviews the CD has received are similarly full of praise and anticipation for what comes next.

The first CD in the series is a concert performance of the Brahms Second Symphony in D, plus three other works: Weber's Oberon overture, Elgar's Salut d'Amour and the overture to Mozart's Marriage of Figaro.

There is something special about a live recording which conventional studio recordings can often lack. Certainly the danger of mistakes is ever present, but the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. Call me a cynic, if you like, but I find that few recordings of the standard repertoire have the excitement normally present in the concert hall. This performance of the Brahms is different.

Turgid? No!
Tingle Factor? - In abundance!

I'm afraid that there is no internationally recognised measure of Tingle Factor. However it can be found in my experience on this CD .

Sound Quality

The CD represents an attempt to recreate the sound quality that Brahms would have known (and Mozart could only aspire to). The orchestra uses instruments dating from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries which would have been used in British orchestras until the Second World War. This gives a result not unlkie chamber music - players capturing the living quality of the music, its emotion and colours as they undertake a musical journey through the works. Remember that these instruments would have been known to Brahms, Elgar and Richard Strauss - a far cry from modern thinking that everything has to be faster, louder and richer. One of the musicians involved reports that "playing in this orchestra is like having a conversation with friends".

Comments

I'm impressed by this CD and hope that future issues are as enjoyable. It would be nice to think that the clarity of sound could be found in the local concert hall.

For more information on the New Queen's Hall Orchestra click on the logo:

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