Orange County Register

Carlos Kleiber conducts Brahms’ Fourth

November 5th, 2009, 10:11 am · 4 Comments · posted by Timothy Mangan, music critic

The third movement of the Symphony No. 4 by Brahms, Carlos Kleiber conducting the Bayerisches Staatsorchester. There are so many good things about this performance, but one thing I especially like is the variety of tone colors Kleiber gets out of this orchestra and out of the piece. So many performances of Brahms are thick and murky. Not this one. Another thing I like: Kleiber looks like he’s having a lot of fun.

Speaking of fun, here’s my favorite Kleiber video, old but good.

related link: carlos kleiber’s business model

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Posted in: Classical Music by Tim Mangan • music videos
 

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 4 Comments

• Rodney Punt says:

  November 5, 2009 at 10:27 am

  The last orchestral movement Brahms composed, and just to show he could do it, he wrote with clarity and rhythmic snap, unlike in most of the other movements in his four symphonies. The triangle adds sparkle. Yes, the performance enhances the intended effect.

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• Rick Stein says:

  November 5, 2009 at 3:00 pm

  I agree, Tim, it’s very crisp, clean, well-delineated. Thanks for sharing.

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• MarK says:

  November 16, 2009 at 9:13 pm

  He gets the musicians to do many wonderful things in this video, but one can tell that this is not a top quality orchestra and they have a couple of uncomfortable moments during these six minutes.
  For example, at about 0:45 one of the percussionists is a little off and Kleiber gives a clearly unhappy look in that direction. Then, at about 2:10, ensemble between sections is a bit out of whack, and Kleiber immediately switches to beating time demonstratively for the next 20 seconds or so, which is definitely not his favorite way of conducting, but he has to do it in this case to avoid disaster. Then, at 4:35, the machine of the orchestra is working well again, and he is happy to just stand there and enjoy the flow of this exuberant music. At 5:05, the orchestra is showing signs of rushing ahead a little too much, so at 5:15 Kleiber is forced to hold them back strongly while conducting a big crescendo. He succeeds very nicely. At about 6:05, there is another little ensemble glitch, even though Kleiber is conducting that ritardando very clearly.
  My point is that he is having fun indeed, but not all the time, while with Vienna Phil, for example, it would have probably been fun from beginning to end.

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• Timothy Mangan, music critic says:

  November 16, 2009 at 9:24 pm

  Thanks for those insights, MarK. When I get a chance I’m going to watch the video again and see if I can pick up on your observations.

  Kleiber did, apparently, have a good relationship with this orchestra. I have no inside info. He did work with them a lot, though.

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