BRAHMS. Symphony No. 1 in C minor. Op. 68. Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink. Philips 6500 519 (k2.29).

Selected comparison.

LPO, Boult (4/73) ASD2871

Records of Brahms symphonies come so often these days that I begin to wonder if I haven't over-looked a centenary or some such cause for celebration. This is the sixth version of No. 1 to appear this year ; and the difficulty for the reviewer is that they are almost all so good! If you turn the pages of this issue you will see the finest orchestras of the world, playing under conductors of the greatest repute, none of whom you would expect to produce anything but a fine performance. And now here is Haitink with the superb Concergebouw Orchestra, an account certainly to be treated with respect and considered with the others. Well, I've been considering but it is extremely difficult to explain the reasons for my preference. Briefly, I slightly prefer the HMV/Boult version because it's one of his supreme interpretations anyway. He plays those germinal viola notes in bars 157 and 158 of the first movement so deliberately, so that they are not only marcato, as Brahms indicated but, after a longish passage os relaxation, suggest the flexing of muscles for what is to come. You cannot possibly mistake the fact that these mere three notes are of tremendous importance and, sure enough, the athletic power of the following bars is conveyed with enormous brio.

Haitink is, of course, good too—but not quite with the natural inevitability of Sir Adrian's reading. The Philips' recording is excellent and if you are a Haitink/Concertgebouw man, you won't at all go wrong: but Sir Adrian's account, in a very natural recording, strikes me as best of all.

By the way, I owe CBS an apology for stating, on p. 735 of the October issue, that in getting the complete Brahms symphonies under Szell on to only three discs, they had started record 1 with the second movement of Symphony No. 2. Record 1 in fact begins with the start of that symphony. Of course, one does expect it to begin with the First Symphony : it must have been my surprise (and a lapse of mind) that made me scribble down the wrong information. I did nevertheless compliment CBS on the lay-out. All Brahms's symphonies, plus the two overtures, on three discs, in very good sound, is something of an achievement. T.H.