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Johannes Brahms - Complete Symphonies

OPUS KLASSIK 2023: Nominated in 3 categories

In 2020, we were honored to win the prestigious music award, Opus Klassik, for our recordings of Beethoven’s complete symphonies. Now, we are proud to announce that we have set a new record with an outstanding 3 nominations for our interpretations of Johannes Brahms’s complete symphonies.

We have been nominated in three categories: Conductor of the Year, Symphonic Recording of the Year, and last but certainly not least, Ensemble/Orchestra of the Year!

Brahms in a new interpretation

Brahms took twenty years to write his first symphony. It was worth waiting for. Brahms himself described his misgivings about writing in continuation of Beethoven; "You just had to know what it's like to hear the giant's steps right behind you!". Brahms was extremely self-critical all his life, and countless of his works ended up in the wastebasket or the fireplace. There are an astronomical number of different recordings of Brahms' symphonies. In this new version, we have chosen to focus on the composer's love for the tradition from Haydn and Beethoven - and on the music's obvious chamber musical qualities. The album has been nominated as the symphonic release of the year at the ICMA 2023 - International Classical Music Award.

Buy the albumStream online

New album

Even before the release, there was great international interest. On the day of release, the album reached the top and was placed at No. 1 at Tower Records in Japan. The Guardian wrote "Constantly fascinating performances'' and "These fresh, meticulously rethought performances may be worlds away from the classic recordings of these symphonies'' `. German NDR calls the release "intoxicating and uncompromising'' and writes "nothing seems to have been left to chance''. Classic FM has highlighted the release as 'Album of the week'. We have collected several reviews at the bottom of this page.

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Reviews

...den nye indspilning med Danmarks Underholdningsorkester, der er halvt så stort som de fleste i branchen, har et helt anderledes slankt klangideal end det store sus af romantisk symfoni, som Brahms normalt giver. Men det lykkes smukt. Med sans for tempo, skøn balance, høj energi og et helt igennem dramatisk udtryk.

Politiken

Emulating Brahms himself with an orchestra of fewer than 50 players, these fresh, engaging recordings show that less can mean a lot more

The Guardian

The performances with the Danish Chamber Orchestra are strongly expressive and offer warm, elastic playing throughout

Tarraco's Culture Club

Man har altid følelsen af at høre en historie blive fortalt i hver af disse satser af de fire Brahms-symfonier. Det er nu op til os lyttere at genfortælle dem. Én ting er sikkert, denne spændende optagelse mangler kun én ting: kedsomhed.

NDR

Hastighedens ekstase: de blændende danske komplette Brahms Symphonies af Ádám Fischer

Crescendo10/10

And so this is certainly a highly interesting, often surprising, always musically passionate complete recording of the Brahms symphonies,

Pizzicato

A revelation!

Stretto