DEUTSCHE KAMMERPHILHARMONIE / NEW YORK – AUGUST 2014:
“What made this performance extraordinary was Mr. Jarvi’s pliant pacing. As the musicologist Walter Frisch writes, “Brahms favored and himself employed considerable elasticity of tempo,” but few now dare the extremes of early-20th-century conductors like Max Fiedler and Wilhelm Furtwängler. Mr. Jarvi did. It’s a brave strategy. One false move can render whole movements incoherent. When it works, when it sounds spontaneous and innate to the music rather than imposed upon it, symphonic development is raised to another level of drama. With risk came reward in this dark, ultimately triumphant reading from Mr. Jarvi and his virtuosic orchestra.”
David Allen, New York Times, 8 August 2014
