Brahms - Symphonies No 1-4

The Guardian 0

Conductor Robin Ticciati create a distinct sound world for each symphony, while Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s playing is unfailingly vivid

I wouldn’t usually recommend listening to all four Brahms symphonies back to back: too much of a good thing – and, in too many conductors’ interpretations, too much that sounds the same. In the case of this new cycle from Robin Ticciati and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, however, I’d say gorge away.

There is nothing here that sounds like bog-standard Brahms, nothing that hasn’t been meticulously thought through, barely a bar that doesn’t say something. If that sounds exhausting to listen to, it’s not; Ticciati’s care for keeping the music airborne, coupled with the lucent transparency of the playing, mean that the longest movements fly by. It equals and perhaps even exceeds the benchmark Brahms cycle the SCO recorded with Charles Mackerras, 20 years ago.