Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra bring to a close their celebrated Brahms’ cycle with the release of Brahms Symphonies No 3 and 4 Brahms is often associated with the idea of abstract music, free of literary models or autobiography, but with the third the composer wrote in many ways his most personal symphony. Composed at a mountain retreat in 1884, about a year after completing the third, Brahms’ architectural musical skill is nowhere more evident than in his fourth and final symphony, employing Baroque contrapuntal techniques and chromatic labyrinths and described by Hans von Bülow as having the feeling of ‘being given a beating by two incredibly intelligent people.

Valery Gergiev’s first Brahms release on LSO Live, Symphonies Nos 1 & 2, Tragic Overture & Haydn Variations (LSO0733) was awarded **** Performance ***** Recording by BBC Music Magazine. ‘This Brahms double album enshrines performances that Valery Gergiev gave with the LSO at the Barbican in the latter months of 2012, and they richly deserved preservation. Gergiev produces a gripping, architecturally secure account of the First Symphony … Gergiev’s account of the Second … is refined and sensitive.’ Brahms German Requiem (LSO0748) has also been warmly received by critics. ‘The London Symphony Chorus was wonderfully incisive and articulate in the large-scale movements, especially the second, All Flesh Is Grass, and warmly expressive in the more intimate ones such as the final Blessed Are the Dead.’ The Guardian (UK)

Touring:

In September the London Symphony Orchestra perform Prokofiev Symphony No 5 in Slovakia, Armenia and Greece with Valery Gergiev and Denis Matsuev. In November they go to Spain with Bernard Haitink to perform Bruckner Symphony No 8 and Brahms Symphony No 4. They then travel to Singapore and Australia with Valery Gergiev to perform Rachmaninov Symphony No 3, Prokofiev Symphony No 5 and Shostakovich Symphony No 10 with Denis Matsuev.

Concert Reviews:

‘Brahms is another composer that needs a fine balancing act between restraint and passion, and the Symphony no. 4 is the most perfect example of this duality in his orchestral music. If performed as it was by the Gergiev and the LSO, it sounded strangely reminiscent of Wagner or Bruckner, but with many fewer of the former’s longueurs or the obsessive “logic” of the latter. It certainly put paid to Britten’s insistence that Brahms’ music was “dull”, “stolid”, “pretentious”. There was not, as you might be forgiven for expecting, a touch of Tchaikovsky or even a Russian accent.’ Bachtrack.com contact

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DSD recording, live at the Barbican / Symphony 3 - 11 & 18 December 2012 / Symphony 4 - 12 & 19 December 2012 / 2.0 Stereo and multi-channel (5.0)