Brahms Academic Festival Tragic Overtures Variations on a Theme by HaydnSerenade No 2 (2007)

Between 1981 and 1984 Leonard Bernstein recorded nearly all of Brahms orchestral works with the Wiener Philharmoniker to honour the 150th anniversary of the composers birth in 1983 For the concertos Bernstein enlisted the services of some of the finest Brahms interpreters of the time the violoninst Gidon Kremer the cellist Mischa Maisky and the pianist Krystian Zimerman Seeing Bernstein enjoying himself while conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in these lighter familiar works by Brahms added to the pleasure I got from them The Academic Festival Overture is especially well done Some conductors dont seem to get it but Bernstein did