“In Search of a Fresh Synthesis of Styles and Approaches” – John Eliot Gardiner and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Perform the Brahms Symphonies

“Gardiner concentrates on seeking transparency and contrasts to reveal images which ‘modernise’ Brahms’s symphonies … [He] dusts off many years of tradition … and views this cycle from a new perspective, as a kind of bridge linking Beethoven or Schuman with the future” (Platea Magazine, reviewing the May 2023 Amsterdam symphony cycle)

In September 2021, conductor John Eliot Gardiner embarked on a two-season focus on the music of Brahms with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. They gave a series of acclaimed concerts at the orchestra’s Amsterdam home, each featuring one of the symphonies juxtaposed either with one of the piano concertos or with a selection of choral works. In May 2023, they brought the project to a triumphant conclusion by performing the complete symphonies over two evenings in Amsterdam, Hamburg and Luxembourg.

Deutsche Grammophon is delighted to present an album featuring all four symphonies, captured live at the Concertgebouw between September 2021 and January 2023. Johannes Brahms – Complete Symphonies will be released digitally and as a 3-CD set on 2 May 2025. The second movement of Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Andante sostenuto, will be available to stream or download from 28 March, and the third movement of No. 2 in D major, Allegretto grazioso (quasi andantino), from 18 April.

Gardiner first recorded the Brahms symphonies with the period-instrument players of the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique almost two decades ago. Explaining his decision to re-record the cycle, he says, “I sensed a need and a personal challenge to build on that seminal earlier experience and to extend its findings and interpretations to/in working with a modern instrument orchestra – especially such a distinguished, flexible and immensely accomplished one as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra – in search of a fresh synthesis of styles and approaches.”

Brahms famously took many years to complete his Symphony No. 1, so aware was he of the daunting example set by Beethoven. Having premiered the majestic First to huge success in 1876, he went on to write three further monuments of the genre – the Second was first heard just a year later, in 1877, the Third in 1883 and the Fourth in 1885.

Together, Gardiner and the RCO explored these four strikingly different works in enormous depth and detail, bringing out not only their variety but their close links with Brahms’s choral music (an area the conductor describes as his “pet hobby-horse”). Their readings were widely praised for their radiance and vigour – this last despite the fact that Gardiner marked his 80th birthday in April 2023.

Summing up the collaboration, David Bazen, the RCO’s Director of Business Operations, notes, “The symphonies of Johannes Brahms are much loved by musicians and audiences worldwide and form part of the core repertoire of any symphony orchestra. These live recordings provide us with the opportunity to relive John Eliot Gardiner’s fresh and lively interpretations of these timeless masterpieces.”

The full Brahms repertoire performed by John Eliot Gardiner and the RCO is available on STAGE+. Symphony No. 1 is programmed with Schicksalslied and other choral works, No. 2 with Piano Concerto No. 1; No. 3 with Nänie and other choral pieces, and No. 4 with Piano Concerto No. 2. The concerto soloist is Stephen Hough and the choral music is performed by the Monteverdi Choir.