When Brahms’ First Symphony received its premiere, it was immediately described as ‘Beethoven’s Tenth’ – the highest praise possible, acclaiming Brahms as the successor to the greatest symphonist of all. But it hadn’t been an easy journey. Brahms was 43 years old when this symphony was first performed, and in those first four decades of his life he had been grappling with the question of how to deal with the great legacy of the Classical era that lay before him. It took him 20 years to compose that first symphony – but once it was completed, he suddenly produced three more in under ten years, in one of the most astonishing creative outpourings in music: ‘a quartet of masterworks,’ in the words of Asher Fisch, ‘that are both old and new.’Recorded live in concert in 2015, these performances from the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and its Principal Conductor bring to life the colour and complexity of Brahms’ vision. Fisch – a protégé of Daniel Barenboim – is acclaimed as one of the great conductors of the Romantic repertoire of our times; from the lyrical second symphony to the epic fourth, this album is a testimony to his interpretative prowess, Brahms’ music, and to a superlative orchestra recorded in its prime.