Gävle Symphony Orchestra, Jaime Martín - Brahms: Serenades Nos. 1 & 2 (2017) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Serenade No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11: I. Allegro molto
02. Serenade No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11: II. Scherzo. Allegro non troppo
03. Serenade No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11: III. Adagio non troppo
04. Serenade No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11: IVa. Menuetto I
05. Serenade No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11: IVb. Menuetto II
06. Serenade No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11: IVc. Coda
07. Serenade No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11: V. Scherzo. Allegro
08. Serenade No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11: VI. Rondo. Allegro
09. Serenade No. 2 in A Major, Op. 16: I. Allegro moderato
10. Serenade No. 2 in A Major, Op. 16: II. Scherzo. Vivace
11. Serenade No. 2 in A Major, Op. 16: III. Adagio non troppo
12. Serenade No. 2 in A Major, Op. 16: IV. Quasi menuetto
13. Serenade No. 2 in A Major, Op. 16: V. Rondo. Allegro


First impressions are wholly positive. Without sounding uncultivated, the Gävle Symphony Orchestra catch nicely the outdoorsy good humour of the D major First Serenade’s opening melody, shared to an earthier degree by the second theme of the Scherzo, as if it belonged to Nielsen or Stenhammar. I like the Gävle strings’ trenchant leap into the development section, and they maintain a fine control of those oscillating figures that in serene altitude are now more associated with Bruckner, and in the bass, Dvořák. Only when turning to the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Claudio Abbado in that Scherzo do other aspects of the music shyly emerge: hesitant, interior qualities, a burr to the violas’ phrases which question and counter the silvery legato of the violins and flutes.
Jaime Martín is not seeking (or at least does not find) hidden depths in the Adagio, which flows in unaffected fashion at a tempo that makes better sense of the double-dotted lilt to the accompaniment than the thickly insistent tread of Abbado’s first recording with the Berlin Philharmonic. The Stockholm Philharmonic and Andrew Davis show that the movement can work its magic at an even swifter tempo if the playing is truly quiet and tender.

Ondine’s recording, made in the orchestra’s own distinctive, flat-domed hall, allows plenty of air around music whose horn-led ebullience is rarely stilled for long. In Berlin, the Scherzo of the A major Second Serenade is a little thick-set and blurry compared to the irrepressibly buoyant solo winds in Gävle. Martín again pays heed to the non troppo part of the following Adagio passacaglia and, like Davis, throws light on any number of reference points – backwards to Beethoven and Schumann, and forwards to Brahms’s own, more symphonically developed works (including the piano concertos). It’s a disc to raise the spirits.

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