Brahms was so intimidated by the achievement of Beethoven as a symphonist that he held off on the composition of his own First Symphony until quite late in his career. But by then he had already written large-scale orchestral works that would have no reason to fear comparison with the Beethoven scores -- the youthful First Piano Concerto, for example, has an opening as arrestingly dramatic as any of the older composer's. Most have been repertory standards for well over a century.
But for some reason the two orchestral serenades, also composed during Brahms' early years, remained in the background until fairly recently. When Istvan Kertesz's recordings of both pieces with the London Symphony Orchestra appeared during the 1960s there was much remarking by reviewers on how strange it was that, considering the quality of the music, they were unknown to many listeners who knew Brahms' symphonies and concertos backwards and forwards. Since then new recordings have appeared with growing frequency, and by now there are many good ones to choose from.
The title "serenade" suggests a work that is lighter and less probing than a symphony. Brahms obliges with large-scale pieces made up mostly of immediately ingratiating, tuneful movements. But at the heart of each of these works is an adagio non troppo slow movement whose gravity points to the expressive world of the symphonies that came later.
In some recorded performances the conductors seem to have taken their cues from these movements at the expense of the lightness of the others. The serenades should be played as tuneful, entertaining works with episodes of deeper thought in the adagios, and the best recorded interpretations -- Kertesz's, Boult's, Abbado's -- have contoured them to achieve a flow that allows their emotional extremes to complement each other.
In these recent recordings with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly settles right into these scores and finds the true character of each movement. He showed what an acute Brahmsian he was a couple of years back with terrific pairing of the two piano concertos with soloist Nelson Freire and with his set of the symphonies, overtures and other orchestral works, both with the same orchestra, and continues to fill out the picture here.
Listen to how Chailly launches into the outdoorsy first movement of Serenade No.1, with its hunting fanfares, an allusion that Brahms brings out fully in the galloping rhythms of the two concluding movements. The tempo he chooses is so brisk that listeners familiar with most other recorded versions may bristle, but listen on to hear how well he makes it work. Some who know the music well may miss the extra urgency that conductors like Abbado and Boult (to whom Chailly acknowledges a debt in forming his conception of the piece) bring to the ascending build-up, beginning at 6:35 in this recording, to the full-throttle restatement of the main theme at 7:05, but should appreciate the way that Chailly energises the movement overall to balance the thrust of the Serenade's concluding rondo.
It's easy to hear that the Leipzig musicians knew exactly what Brahms wanted from the waltz-like lilt of the second movement scherzo. Made buoyant by Chailly's energetic tempo, they let it whirl along weightlessly (listen to the theme that begins at 1:05). The slow movement that follows is so deeply serious, even tragic at its climax, that it seems to belie the nature of a serenade, to come from an entirely different emotional world than that of the others, but like Abbado, Chailly assimilates it into the contour of the piece convincingly. It is a shame that Bruno Walter, an inspired Brahmsian who brought a special warmth to movements like this one, never recorded the First Serenade, but few listeners will be unmoved by Chailly's way with it, something he manages eloquently despite stronger than usual contrasts in tempi with the two movements that surround it.
The theme of the second of the two minuets that follow must rank (together with the oboe theme in the finale of the Second Serenade) as one of the most fetching in all of Brahms, and that is saying something. It is as lovingly shaped here as it is in the recordings by Abbado and Sawallisch.
The scoring of the Second Serenade doubles the winds but removes violins from the string section. According to Peter Korfmacher's notes to this release Chailly feels that with this unusual scoring "the idea is a duskier sound. Not in the sense of darkness, but rather one of pleasant shade". You will appreciate his success in achieving this slightly clouded-over mood, so prevalent in Brahms's music throughout his career, right at the beginning of the opening allegro moderato. Here, again he takes the music at a good clip that doesn't allow it to linger excessively over passages like the orchestral sigh heard in this recording just after 3:00 while still fully bringing out their uniquely Brahmsian expressiveness.
Boult's performance of this serenade has always been a personal favourite, in part because of the way he unleashes the Vivace second movement scherzo and lets it rip. Chailly goes one further here, taking it even faster and giving it a feeling of optimistic forward momentum that matches what he brings to the final movement of the First Serenade.
The adagio non troppo that follows flows more freely than its far longer and more sombre counterpart in the First Serenade, but Chailly points up the Beethovenian outbursts after 1:00 and gives the movement its full weight as the serenade's centre of gravity.
The quasi minuetto, with its limping rhythm, combines charm and melancholy affectingly, and the finale, taken at a very quick speed, will seduce any listener as vulnerable as I am to the theme first played by the oboe at 1:06 and later, even more hauntingly, in the minor mode at 2:15.
The version of this programme discussed here is a high-resolution 24/96 download played on an Astell&Kern AK120II portable player through Shure 535 headphones. The recorded sound was detailed and spacious, and will certainly be even more impressive to listeners who have proper home sound systems.
Chailly is a good first choice for listeners who want to explore these serenades. It ranks with the recordings by Kertesz (available in a very inexpensive set together with fine performances of the four symphonies on the Australian Decca Eloquence bargain label), Abbado (DG), and Boult (EMI) in the top tier.
