This performance of Brahms’ Fourth Symphony offers the same virtues and defects as Jansons’ previous release of symphonies 2 and 3. The playing is very beautiful, never less than world class, with gorgeous chording and excellent internal balances. What problems there are lie squarely with the conductor. Jansons’ doesn’t appear to understand the drama and passion that Brahms expresses through thematic development and long-term harmonic tension. There’s no “linearity” to this performance at all. One tune follows another, each equally attractive, with nothing connecting them. The first movement development section cries out for an infusion of energy, a sense of struggle and forward thrust, while the violent return of the opening theme in the same movement’s coda lacks any trace of savagery, of this moment representing the tragic fulfillment of a destiny latent in the symphony’s very first bars.
Similarly, the final passacaglia should sound monumental, but not glacial. Where is the music’s anger, its grim determination? Where is the pathos in the flute’s solo variation, the terror in the trombone section’s threatening gestures in the work’s closing minutes? In short, there’s so little emotional variety in Jansons’ conducting other than a generalized prettiness that the performance comes off as emotionally dead, a technical exercise, and little more. The coupling is historically interesting, but musically unmemorable. Joachim’s overture features excellent orchestration (cute piccolo writing in particular), but outstays its welcome mulling over thematic material that has no character or distinction whatever. It’s certainly not important enough to earn a recommendation for this disc. In today’s glutted market, releases of standard repertory in less then spectacular performances are simply a waste of plastic.
