If you haven’t yet acquired these priceless, timeless performances through earlier CD incarnations, here’s your chance, and at budget price, even. Despite the Brahms Concerto’s slightly opaque engineering, Otto Klemperer’s stern yet vivacious, rhythmically incisive, and sweeping conception of the orchestral part grips you like the gloves of God. It’s amazing how Klemperer transformed this ordinarily lithe and silvery French orchestra into a rugged, oaken German ensemble. And let’s not forget David Oistrakh’s heartfelt, intelligent virtuosity, his gorgeous, unforced tone, or the naturalness with which he negotiates Brahms’ frequent displacement of phrases against the basic meter. As the Mozart Sinfonia concertante reveals, Oistrakh was no less commanding a violist, and the sheer ensemble unanimity and joy in music making that he and his son Igor convey remain the standard for this work. Essential listening.
