Following the 2011 landmark Beethoven cycle, Riccardo Chailly returns with a recording of the complete Brahms symphonies and orchestral works including the overtures and Haydn Variations.

Rarities include world premiere recordings of two piano intermezzi orchestrated by Paul Klengel (brother of the Gewandhaus’ long-standing principal cellist Julius Klengel); the 9 Liebeslieder waltzes; the original first performance version of the Andante of Symphony No. 1 and the even rarer revised opening of the Fourth Symphony.

Chailly has radically rethought his approach to these works, re-examining the scores and returning to the recorded interpretations of a generation of conductors alive during Brahms’ lifetime, principally Felix Weingartner and one of his Gewandhaus predecessors Bruno Walter.

Track listing:

Symphonies Nos. 1-4 (Complete)
Tragic Overture, Op. 81
Intermezzo in E major, Op. 116 No. 4
Intermezzo in E flat major, Op. 117 No. 1
Variations on a theme by Haydn for orchestra, Op. 56a ‘St Anthony Variations’
Liebeslieder-Walzer, Op. 52: excerpts
Nagen am Herzen fühl ich Gift in mir, Op. 65, No. 9
Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80
Hungarian Dance No. 1 in G minor
Hungarian Dance No. 3 in F major
Hungarian Dance No. 10 in F major
Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 - Andante