Gerd Schaller conducts Brahms

Profil Edition Hänssler has released the Second Symphony by Johannes Brahms with Gerd Schaller and the Philharmonie Festiva.

Remy Franck writes: Gerd Schaller conducts Johannes Brahms’ Second Symphony in a healthy alternation of relaxation and powerful musical flow. …Throughout, Schaller allows the wonderful woodwinds and horns of the Philharmonie Festiva to flourish, giving the movement just the tension, the passion in the cantando that has sometimes been missed in other interpretations.

Guy Engesl notes: “Blue skies, trickling springs, sunshine and cool, green shadows,” wrote a Brahms friend about this second symphony. One senses much of this in Schaller’s interpretation, except that at no moment does it sound kitschy, dreary or sentimental.