Symphonies Intégrale

Description

Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra have released the four symphonies and a wide range of other works by Johannes Brahms between 2009 and 2021. This box set brings together all these successful Channel Classics recordings. Brahms worked on his First Symphony for many years – a long process driven by extremely diverse musical impulses. The Guardian described Fischer's recording as "monumental in every sense of the word." In the Second Symphony, which he composed in just one summer, Brahms reveals his masterful talent for developing large-scale architecture from the simplest motifs. For Iván Fischer, the beginning of Brahms' Third Symphony is "the story of a life in ten measures – there is no more magnificent symphonic opening than the first thirty-four seconds of Brahms' Third." Many consider his Fourth Symphony to be the most beautiful of all romantic symphonies. And what a wonderful beginning: a fragmented melody like a leaf fluttering in the wind. "Never has tenderness been composed in a more moving way," says Iván Fischer. BBC Music Magazine awarded this recording two five-star ratings in its review: "Here is an orchestra whose musicians listen attentively to one another."