Why even bother rating it? I guess you could ask how much someone likes it or not, but Brahms 1 is an undisputed masterpiece of the highest order and has been recognized as such since the first rIead-through. It's one warhorse that I will actually go to a concert to hear, and it's a blast to play. The contrabassoon part is exceptional.

There are so many great recordings, and few duds. Some of my favorites: Munch/Boston, Mackerras/RSNO, Jochum/EMI, Barenboim/Chicago, Leinsdorf/Boston. Brahms was never a strong point with Bernstein and Karajan frankly wasn't all that good either. If I could only keep one Brahms 1: Ormandy on Sony. Ormandy was a great Brahms conductor.

 

Why even bother rating it? I guess you could ask how much someone likes it or not, but Brahms 1 is an undisputed masterpiece of the highest order and has been recognized as such since the first rIead-through. It's one warhorse that I will actually go to a concert to hear, and it's a blast to play. The contrabassoon part is exceptional.

Do you think Brahms was paying homage to another great symphony in C minor (Beethoven) with the contrabassoon part? The thought occurred to me just now!

Klemperer conducting the Brahms 1st Symphony is one of my true treasures. There is the same great articulation and perfect tempo as there is with yet another great C minor symphony, the Mahler 2nd.

I have no Bruckner conducted by Klemperer! I must get me some.

 

My favorite interpretations---all in stereo:

Van Beinum/Amsterdam (Royal) Concertgebouw Orchestra
Klemperer/Philharmonia Orchestra
Ormandy/Philadelphia Orchestra (his 1959 Columbia recording)

 

Certainly all the Brahms symphonies are better than "good;" any musicological guide rates them with the best ever written and as good as any other of their time and style.

Brahms destroyed all his early work so his First symphony is first in name only. It is perhaps the most consistently dramatic of his symphonies. Like everything he wrote it can be interpreted in a number of ways -- from youthful fire and intensity to aged philosophizing. One only has to listen to variable performances to hear both styles.

This work isn't in my collection or playlist any longer and the performance I last heard I most enjoyed with from Karel Ancerl and Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. I'd put that performance in the youthful fire category akin to Toscanini and others.

 

Brahms' Symphony No. 1... meh.

I'll take no.'s 3, 4 and 2 beforehand, please.

 

Brahms destroyed some early (and not only early!) works but I have never heard that a completed orchestral symphony was among them. After all, he published a bunch of works before the 1st symphony that could be considered "symphonic" (1st piano concerto that apparently was planned a symphony originally, the two serenades, the Haydn variations and several choral works with large orchestra).

 

Next time, can you do a Brahms work that is less popular-- not a warhorse-- like the Double Concerto or one of the piano trios? Because you're not going to get interesting results from a poll rating a work that is universally loved by audiences and critics.

 

Universal? No, sir! Wagner could vomit on manuscript paper and it would be better than this trash. 🤮

 

I voted good, the others are better .

 

There are two train horn honks from bar 392 to 395.

 

The First Symphony was the first Brahms music I ever heard, as a young teen listening to "classical" radio. I don't recall the performers, but the work captured my attention and never let go. Shortly after that experience I purchased a box set of the four symphonies as performed by Steinberg and the Pittsburgh Symphony. The set has never disappointed me. I've meanwhile gone on to hear more interpretations of the Brahms First and each one has proved formidable. The symphony is simply one of the great ones. I still think of the work as "Beethoven's Tenth" and I suspect Beethoven would have liked it, maybe even have been a touch intimidated by it, and nothing in music intimidated Beethoven, with the possible exception of some Bach. And there you have it: the three B's -- Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms! (Peter Cornelius had it miserably wrong when he put Berlioz into that listing instead of Brahms. Of course, Brahms didn't complete his First Symphony until some 20 years after Cornelius published his "three B's", so I suspect we can't be too harsh towards him.)

The Brahms First? One of the greatest symphonies of them all.

 

All of Brahms's symphonies are among the greatest ever written. As for the best recordings, there are many. The conductors I particularly enjoy in Brahms aren't the ones who go for thrills or even "power" - those qualities are fine but not essential as far as my heart is concerned - but they glow with warmth. So I go with Walter, Abbado, Sanderling, Steinberg (who is also quite thrilling), Rattle (Berlin), Kempe and so on. It is a major masterpiece and there are many different things to say through it but I wouldn't want to lose out on those - they are precious to me.

 

No.3 is top of the pile for me among the Brahms symphonies but Karajan's magnificently dark, craggy 1964 recording of no.1 with the Berlin Phil is my single favourite recording of any of them.

 

Brahms’ First Symphony is an excellent piece of music and it was my introduction to his music. All four Symphonies are excellent, though I tend to favour his Second at present.

My preferred recordingof the First Symphony is Otto Klemperer & the Philharmonia. This wasn’t my first recording but it has made the strongest impression.

I also enjoy Sergiu Celibidache & the Münchner Philharmoniker as well as an earlier recording with an Italian Television/Radio Symphony Orchestra (I forget the exact name and I don’t have the discs to hand).

Leonard Bernstein & the Wiener Philharmoniker is superb as is any recording by Günter Wand. Stanislaw Skrowaczewski with the Saarbrucken forces also offers a superb performance - as does Klaus Tennstedt in a live recording on the London Philharmonic Orchestra’ own label.

For something different I also enjoy Charles Mackerras’ performance with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. An excellent performance with a little extra transparency.

 

Emotionally, it's my favorite of his, maybe because it's the first I encountered or because it's the most dramatic. It's slightly flawed in the dramatic arch because the first movement already ends in a resolution, so he has to whip up some storm again at the beginning of the last. Musically, this is all great but it doesn't really make a lot of dramatic sense, especially because the two middle movements are comparably "light" with little drama. (not ENOUGH middle Beethoven, rather than too much )
The very beginning is a great favorite of mine, maybe the most tense and thunderous introduction of any symphony and then the plaintive oboe solo. And it was apparently added later! Supposedly in the original plan (shown to and commented on by Clara) the movement first started rather abruptly with what became the fast section.

 

I just picked up my second version of the 4 Brahms Symphonies done in 2017 by Robin Ticciati & Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

The 1st movement of the 1st Symphony is delivered at a slightly increased pace, and it is delivered with more punch that what I've heard in the past. I like it a lot.