For collectors of Claudio Abbado's recordings, the performances on this four-disc Musical Heritage Society release of the Italian conductor's digital recordings of Brahms' symphonies with the Berliner Philharmoniker may seem redundant, since the symphonies were previously released as single discs in the late '80s and early '90s on Deutsche Grammophon. Although at first glance these discs seem identical with the earlier releases, there is one addition here that will make the set compulsory for Abbado fans: his rousing ...
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For collectors of Claudio Abbado's recordings, the performances on this four-disc Musical Heritage Society release of the Italian conductor's digital recordings of Brahms' symphonies with the Berliner Philharmoniker may seem redundant, since the symphonies were previously released as single discs in the late '80s and early '90s on Deutsche Grammophon. Although at first glance these discs seem identical with the earlier releases, there is one addition here that will make the set compulsory for Abbado fans: his rousing account of Brahms' Academic Festival Overture, which in its previous release was coupled with Abbado's performance of Brahms' Violin Concerto with Shlomo Mintz.These performances are technically impeccable; Abbado is a tremendously skillful conductor who knows these scores like the back of his hand, and the Berliner Philharmoniker is one of the two or three finest orchestras in Europe, with a collective virtuosity that no other orchestra on the planet can match. The performances are also...
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