Brahms: Symphonies 2 & 3 Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra & Marek Janowski

• Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897): Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73:
• 1 Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73: I. Allegro non troppo 19:06
• 2 Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73: II. Adagio non troppo 09:13
• 3 Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73: III. Allegretto grazioso (quasi andantino) 05:27
• 4 Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73: IV. Allegro con spirito 08:50
• Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90:
• 5 Brahms: Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90: I. Allegro con brio 13:03
• 6 Brahms: Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90: II. Andante 08:13
• 7 Brahms: Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90: III. Poco allegretto 06:25
• 8 Brahms: Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90: IV. Allegro 08:54
• Total Runtime 01:19:11

Info for Brahms: Symphonies 2 & 3

Conductor Marek Janowski has been a longtime dependable presence on the international scene; he has done significant work in Paris, Berlin and Dresden, Germany, among other cities, and his seemingly forgotten 1980s Ring cycle recording recently was proclaimed by Gramophone magazine to be the all-around first choice for Wagner's monument. Then comes this series of new standard-repertoire with his Geneva-based Suisse Romande orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony, where he's been an interim figure since Mariss Jansons' departure. And just what do we have here?

The Brahms/Pittsburgh recordings are never less than excellent, though in this oft-recorded repertoire that's not always enough. All the performances are marked by an extraordinary sense of singing line and brisk tempos, which are more of what the composer expected than the slower ruminations of recent times. The second is so lyrical as to seem somewhat uneventful; the third is many volts ahead on the electricity scale, and is by itself worth the price of the disc. Janowski's Symphony No. 1 is remarkably cogent and structure-minded, though the Haydn variations are just a notch above routine.

“We might just be within an ace of the finest Brahms symphony cycle of the digital era. Marek Janowski and the Pittsburgh Symphony commenced the series with impressive accounts of Symphony No 1 and the Haydn Variations. These live concert performances from November 2007 of Symphonies 2 and 3 confirm the partnership’s mastery of Brahms and elevate expectations for the Fourth, which should appear within a matter of months.” - Stephen Habington, La Scena Musicale

“Marek Janowski, principal guest conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, leads that well-mettled ensemble in smoothly executed performances of Johannes Brahms’ Symphonies No. 2 in D, Op. 73 and No. 3 in F, Op. 90.” - Dr Phil Muse, Atlanta Audio Society

“Pentatone gets both symphonies, with all repeats intact, on a single 80-minute disc, making this quite a bargain. The engineering, as in the previous recording of the First Symphony, is very good in all formats, and seems to suit the greater intimacy of these two works particularly well.” - David Hurwitz, Classics Today

"Orchestral Album of the Month “It is notoriously difficult to bring off this work convincingly, yet by negotiating the music’s dramatic contours with complete naturalness, Janowski and his fabulous Pittsburghers create the impression of profound ease and inevitability. With playing and recording both of luxury class, Janowski’s insightful readings will appeal even to those normally resistant to Brahms’s music.” - Julian Haylock, Classic FM Magazine

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Marek Janowski, conductor

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
has enjoyed broader acclaim than the scale of its Pennsylvania home might imply, thanks to an illustrious roster of 20th-century maestros who guided the ensemble at pivotal stages. During the 2010s the group released an extensive sequence of recordings devoted to core symphonic literature.

Established in 1896 by the Pittsburgh Art Society, the orchestra engaged Irish-born operetta composer Victor Herbert as music director two years later. That appointment ran against the prevailing preference for German leaders yet quickly built a broad following. In 1904 the ensemble veered sharply by naming Germany’s Emil Paur conductor, resulting in programs dominated by Brahms and fellow symphonists. Tensions with local players, compounded by the financial fallout from the Panic of 1907, led to the orchestra’s dissolution in 1910. It was revived in 1927, deliberately defying a Pennsylvania statute that prohibited public music on the Sabbath and thereby securing widespread attention. The ensemble embraced radio early, beginning broadcasts in 1936 that reached much of the eastern United States. The following year Otto Klemperer took the podium, one in a succession of internationally prominent conductors who elevated the orchestra’s standards. Subsequent leaders included Fritz Reiner (1938-1948), Vladimir Bakaleinikov (1948-1952), William Steinberg (1952-1976), André Previn (1976-1984), Lorin Maazel (1984-1996, who had earlier resided in Pittsburgh and studied with Bakaleinikov), Mariss Jansons (1996-2004), a distinctive triumvirate of Marek Janowski, Andrew Davis, and Yan Pascal Tortelier (2004-2008), and, from 2008 onward, Manfred Honeck. A concurrent pops series was led by renowned ragtime pianist Marvin Hamlisch from 1995 until his death in 2014; in 2019 Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds appeared as guest artist. Early performances took place at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Music Hall, Syria Mosque (a venue inspired by a shrine rather than an actual mosque), and Penn Theatre; in 1971 the orchestra acquired its dedicated Heinz Hall, later enlarged on several occasions. Steinberg and Previn oversaw the accumulation of an extensive recorded legacy. Honeck renewed this activity with a 2010s series of symphonic works issued on the Exton and Reference Recordings labels. In 2018 the orchestra released a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 55, coupled with Richard Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 1, Op. 11, Honeck’s approach shaped by the historically informed performance movement. Under Honeck the ensemble received a Grammy nomination for its 2019 album Bruckner: Symphony No. 9.

Marek Janowski
was Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) from 2002 to 2015. Previously – to some extent simultaneously – he served, inter alia, as the music director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (2005–2012), the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo (2000–2005) and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (1984–2000), which he developed into France’s top orchestra. In addition, he headed up the Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne (1986–1990) and the Dresdner Philharmonie (2001–2003) for a number of years.

Born in Warsaw in 1939, raised and educated in Germany, Marek Janowski’s creative path took him from Aachen, Cologne, Düsseldorf and Hamburg as general music director to Freiburg i. Br. and Dortmund. Since the late 1970s there is no opera house of international renown where he has not been a regular guest, from the Metropolitan Opera New York to the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, from San Francisco to Hamburg, Vienna and Paris.

On the concert circuit, on which he has concentrated since the late 1990s, he continues the great German conducting tradition. He ranks worldwide as an outstanding Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Bruckner and Strauss conductor, as well as an expert in the French repertoire. His leave-taking from opera was, however, only institutional in nature, not musical –thus, Marek Janowski is considered one of the most knowledgeable conductors for Richard Wagner’s music, now more than ever. With the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Rundfunkchor Berlin and a phalanx of international soloists, he performed the ten operas and music dramas of the Bavarian canon in concert performances in Berlin’s Philharmonic Hall between 2010 and 2013. All the concerts were released by Pentatone on SACD in cooperation with Deutschlandradio.

More than 50 recordings, often winning internationally awards – including several complete opera recordings and complete symphonic cycles – have been contributing for over 35 years to making Marek Janowski’s particular capabilities as a conductor internationally known.

In 2016 and 2017 Marek Janowski returned once again to the opera house, conducting the “Ring” at the Bayreuth Festival. In addition, he was invited by the NHK Symphony (Japan’s most important orchestra) from 2014 to 2017 to conduct concert performances of Wagner’s “Ring” tetralogy in Tokyo. He will also perform Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” in the spring of 2020 and his “Parsifal” in 2021 with this orchestra.

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