Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) )
Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90 (1883)
Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 (1885)
Hallé Orchestra/Sir John Barbirolli
rec. May 1952 mono  (3); September 1959, stereo, (4,) Free Trade Hall, Manchester, 
Pristine Audio PASC764 [72]

It was a lifetime ago (1972) that I was, as a grubby, homesick and desperately serious student, walking back in the neon-lit night-time to my digs in Bristol toward Filton. I had just heard Mozart’s Symphony No 40 and the Brahms’ German Requiem. The ‘Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras’ episode indelibly blazed and hummed brightly still. I had just attended my first concert in the city’s Cathedral. The Bristol Choral Society and Bristol Sinfonia under Sidney Sager were the performers – I have forgotten the names of the solo singers; the soprano might well have been Sally le Sage (1937-2013). I was utterly won over to Brahms. Across the years various experiences have driven that love even deeper: the Double Concerto (Stern/Rose/Ormandy and to show I am not quite the out-and-out fogey-recidivist, Repin/Schiff/Chailly); the Second Piano Concerto (Serkin/Ormandy first encountered through a box of CBS LPs of all the concertos); the Third Symphony (Bruno Walter in a box of commercial cassettes of all four symphonies – ah, those “lightning-strike” attacks in the finale), the Fourth Symphony – the latter in Heptonstall’s church hall in the Pennines: Todmorden orchestra swelled to great numbers and weight of expression with “extras”.

Andrew Rose, working from analogue sources and applying his signature XR technology, now revives two LPs from the 1950s, both taken down in Manchester. As to the Third Symphony, the earliest of the two, what we hear is grainy and not at all voluptuous but it’s certainly clear. Ambient stereo (an evolution away from the thin Eclipse ECS LP series sound) has been discreetly applied. There are high points; two of which I must mention. It is good to hear Barbirolli at 6.02 in the second movement underscoring a yearningly remarkable portamento. It snares and holds the attention. In the third movement Barbirolli’s smoothness and his insistence on a sturdy attack (e.g. at 8.00) is notable and a joy. The Fourth Symphony was issued in the UK on Pye Golden Guinea vinyl. As experienced here, the Fourth makes a noticeable step towards luxurious clarity and it is heard in true stereo. Barbirolli makes the listener very much aware of the expressively undulating contours of the work. Throughout the strings, in particular, sing out in full-throated unity. That sturdy unanimity of attack heard in the Third applies with even greater force in the Fourth.

It is good to be reminded of these recordings across the passage of time. They retain their pleasures and satisfactions.

Robert Barnett

See also the previous review by Ralph Moore.