Karl Böhm leads a gentle and warmly lyrical Brahms Second, with relaxed tempos (a trifle slow in the inner movements) and an overall congeniality of phrasing. The Berlin Philharmonic provides finely-polished playing enriched with robust sonorities (the horns in the first movement sound gorgeous). All of the above qualities also can be found in Böhm’s remake with the Vienna Philharmonic (now on Australian Eloquence), though superior stereo sound and Vienna’s matchless string tone make that recording preferable to the present version.
More compelling is Reger’s Mozart Variations, where Böhm drops the rather tidy posture he assumed in the Brahms and conducts with a greater degree of freedom and spontaneity. After a somewhat studied opening, the music takes wing under Böhm’s lively conducting as he renders Reger’s imaginative variations with an alacrity usually only found in his live performances. The Berlin Philharmonic revels in the sonic splendor of Reger’s orchestration, the details of which come through surprisingly well even in 1956 mono sound. Though the Reger is the shorter of the two works, it’s the real reason to get this disc.
