News from Kent Nagano: for the past year or so, he has been immersing himself in Brahms with his German orchestra. A German Requiem praised a few months ago follows here on from a particularly successful recording of Symphonies 3 and 4 (the recording dates from 2019, mind you, nevertheless…).
Nagano responds to the composer’s request that these works express strength without heaviness. This is exactly what Nagano is sculpting with the Hamburg-based orchestra, in concert at the Elbphilharmonie. The music is full-bodied, with supple, fleshy surges of sound that take on the air of an epic tinged with heroism, but without any pathos. Sober and impressive at the same time. The ex-Montréaler lengthens the legatos, while maintaining rhythmic cadences that are hurried, but not too much, in the more energetic episodes. These magnificent deployments are a delight to savour.
Two very fine readings that deserve our respect.
