Brahms: Symphonies, Overtures, Haydn Variations, Piano Concertos

“Simply to play Brahms one more time is not enough for me,” said Nikolaus Harnoncourt of these recordings, made in the late 1990s with the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the pianist Rudolf Buchbinder. His research, which included detailed study of Brahms’ own scores and of performing traditions, led the conductor to draw a fascinating, apparently contradictory conclusion: “I deny that Brahms was a Romantic and, in the same breath, I describe him as the greatest Romantic.”