Perhaps no recording of the two gorgeous Serenades has been suffused with such warmth and glow as Masur’s little-known recordings with the Gewandhausorchester. The First has never been issued on CD and, it appears, the Second has not even had an LP release! This release now makes available through Australian Eloquence, all of Kurt Masur’s Brahms recordings on Philips – the symphonies, overtures and Hungarian Dances.
JOHANNES BRAHMS
Serenade No. 1 in D major, Op. 11
Serenade No. 2 in A major, Op. 16
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
Kurt Masur
‘Masur allows the Gewandhaus musicians plenty of freedom for genial inflection, local colour and relaxed, chamber-like interplay … the warm, natural, and robust ambience does ideal justice to Brahms’ glorious scoring … A positively addictive disc, and a bargain at that’ ClassicsToday.com
‘beautiful, gracious and elegant performances … You will never hear this music played better or, in fact, recorded better … I urge you to hear these lovely works and maybe like me you will see and hear them in a new light when you hear performances as convincing as these. Such is the power of music. Thank God!’ 4MBS Classic FM