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Brahms: First symphony
Berlin Phiharmonic/Claudio Abbado
(DG, Berlin 1990)
Berlin, September 1990. The Wall had been down for less
than a year and already the city was divided again - between rich and
poor, triumph and uncertainty. The gold-cladded Philharmonie hall no longer
stood in a desolate bend at the end of the free world. It was now in prime
development land amid a drilling of rampant ambition.
Herbert von Karajan was dead and his successor,
Claudio Abbado, was an antipodal choice - reticent, socialist, modernist,
stylishly Italian. To offset any preconceptions, he chose to open his reign
with a Berlin cornerstone. Sitting centre-stalls, listening to the opening
bombast of the Brahms First, I saw the old-timers around me beam with
relief and satisfaction. They were taken in by the great noise, but as the
symphony progressed Abbado's interpretation turned subversively
reflective.
The big tune in the finale, which Karajan used to build up
to like a firework climax, rose organically and almost imperceptibly out of
the preceding texture. I was enraptured by the performance and later by the
recording. More than just a fresh take on Brahms this was a Brahms for our
times. Visit every week to read Norman Lebrecht's latest column. [Index] 
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Visit every week to read Norman Lebrecht's latest column. 