Playing time: 238'
Recording dates: March 1990 - April 1994
Not all volumes of this set are available everywhere.
I have been told that this set is dull. Who are those people kidding? It's the overly emotional performances which are dull. Who can listen to those more than a couple of times and not become bored by the histrionics? Please. The sound is superior here. Some of the old performances are good too, but the sound is bad. I waited a long time to have a performance of this quality with first-rate sound, and now that I have it, I scoff at the nay-sayers. Most of them don't really even truly like Brahms. They need the music "spiced up" to enjoy it. Pshaw.
Here there is the perfect limpidity in the phrasing, with nothing wearing itself out. And there is a clarity of texture throughout. It is the bounce which makes Brahms... one leans back and bounces off the heel.
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T. M. McComb