Brahms: Symphony No. 3, Serenade No. 2

...I for one will argue that this very restraint on Fischer's part opens deeper meaning to the work. It reveals and explores Brahms' introspective side and the considerable craftsmanship that goes into his works. This is particularly important with this, his most complex of creations.

More importantly, Ann comes running in just this morning saying: "I've just listened to the most marvelous recording of Brahms' Third Symphony! Iván Fischer's interpretation is simply perfect. He lays everything out for us to follow—it simply flows. The entire symphony goes by in what seems like just a few minutes. And the sound quality! Oh, the sound quality!! It is so clear, so detailed, so perfectly natural sounding. I can follow every bit of the musical themes moving from section to section, interweaving and being passed from one instrument to another. The bassoons! How does Jared Sacks make such magic?!?" Yes, I think she liked it.

...I hold this performance in very high regard. It has much to offer. No, it does not sound like every other hell-bent-for-leather performance in the catalog. I am beyond grateful for that. This is a thinking person's Third Symphony. Fischer challenges us to go between the lines, to dig deeper beneath the surface for the meaning the gives this symphony such a great foundation. That slight pause at the end of a phrase, the deliberate slowing down of a line... These are the subtle re- imaginings that Fischer delivers to us to give a new perspective on this well known work. He is challenging us, and inviting us at the same time, to listen with new ears to this symphony.

The Third Symphony’s germinal F-A-F motif is grandly stated at the outset, yet also sprung with a momentum to sweep us into the main argument, which itself is elucidated by strongly divided violins and underpinned by a bass line of marvelous weight and presence. In Fischer’s shaping we may feel as well as read the imprint of Schumann on the score, and the Rhenish in particular, at least until the development section moves on and Brahms comes to terms with the subject of his tribute.

Of conductors in the modern age, Abbado and Colin Davis used to give Thirds of unusual reach – Rattle continues to do so – which never quite survived the transfer from concert to record. Every now and again – the pause before the first movement’s second subject, the sudden access of feeling at the climax of the Andante, some silky portamento turns of phrase – there lingers the studio’s impress on Fischer’s reading, in gestures that might flow more freely from the impetus of a one-off event.

This is, all the same, a Third to savor and repeat, in touch with its fleeting, dusky nature like few others. Passages of the inner movements – and the central Andante of the Serenade, hauntingly done with its own distinctly Schumannesque qualities subtly underlined – take on the character of a veiled clarinet concerto, yet the orchestra bends and yields to the music’s expressive pulse with a unanimity of purpose that entirely belies the sophistication of Fischer’s rubato.

The surprise – for me at least – comes with the dance-like vitality of the finale’s opening, which hits upon a fully formed yet transitional vein of expression between the extroversion of the Second and the rigor of the Fourth at the same point. Perhaps Mariss Jansons (BR-Klassik, 6/11) built the movement’s conflict in more harmonious proportion to its resolution, whereas Fischer’s version more nearly resembles the blaze of tinder fanned by Gardiner (SDG, 11/09). This is not a sunset-home Third. Rather, it leaves the sense of peaks yet to climb and demons yet to vanquish.