Max Fiedler - The Complete Studio Recordings (1930-40) [2012]

Historically, the present recordings are very important. Max Fiedler, born in 1859, is one of only two conductors who knew Brahms to live to record his music, the other being Felix Weingartner. Recently, Jerry Dubins wrote, “Weingartner may be the definitive Brahms interpreter” (Fanfare 36:2). I shared Dubins’s view until I heard Mark Obert-Thorn’s new remasterings of Fiedler’s performances. From a purely period-performance practice perspective, both Fiedler and Weingartner may not qualify as authentic. Charles Mackerras has shown the viability of renditions by the smallish orchestra Brahms favored, such as Meiningen’s, along with vibrato free strings, fluid tempos, divided first and second violins, and a host of other amenities. But even with the Berlin Philharmonic’s fruity vibrato in the Second Symphony, Fiedler has a lot to teach us about the authentic Brahms. There is considerable anecdotal evidence that, both as pianist and conductor, Brahms preferred flexible tempos and would linger over particularly expressive passages. According to pianist Fanny Davies, “Brahms’s manner of interpretation was free, very elastic and expansive; but the balance was always there.” It is in this regard that Fiedler excels Mackerras and even Weingartner. Fiedler reveals expressive ideas through his tempos that are far beyond anything today’s conductors attempt. A Fiedler performance of Brahms is filled with emotion to the point of being explosive. Given Brahms’s interpretive predilections, we never may have a definitive version of any particular work, but a Fiedler account presents a viable template for how to go about playing this composer.


Tracks:

BRAHMS Academic Festival Overture
BRAHMS Symphony No. 2
BRAHMS Symphony No. 4
BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 2

Personnel:

Elly Ney, piano
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Berlin State Opera Orchestra
Max Fiedler, conductor