JOHANNES BRAHMS

Sir John Eliot Gardiner releases a further pre-release track of his upcoming album on which he presents live recordings of all four Brahms Symphonies, taken from a cycle of critically acclaimed concerts from Amsterdam with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra starting in 2021. Together, they explore the works in enormous depth, bringing out not only their variety but their close links with Brahms’s choral music. Their readings were widely praised for their radiance and vigour.   

Explaining his decision to re-record the cycle following a version on period instruments almost two decades ago, Gardiner notes: “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.” 

Listen to the second pre-release track, the joyful and calm third movement of Brahms’s Symphony No. 2 in D Major. The full album will be released digitally and on CD on 2 May. The four concerts, which additionally performed each symphony alongside other key works in Brahms' output, can be viewed on our streaming service STAGE+.