Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68
Berliner Philharmoniker, Kirill Petrenko
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, March 2026, Orchestral Choice
I don't doubt Brahms would have approved, at any rate, of this rendition of his Tragic Overture, which is thrillingly done, vital with a richness of sound and drama that is maintained throughout...
Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68
Berliner Philharmoniker, Kirill Petrenko
Purchase product
Awards:
-
BBC Music Magazine, March 2026, Orchestral Choice
I don't doubt Brahms would have approved, at any rate, of this rendition of his Tragic Overture, which is thrillingly done, vital with a richness of sound and drama that is maintained throughout...
About
For his performance of Johannes Brahms’s symphonies, chief conductor Kirill Petrenko returns to their roots – and to his own: in Meiningen. Court conductor Fritz Steinbach performed them there from 1886 onwards and, thanks to Brahms’s regular visits, recorded the composer’s wishes in the scores.
Brahms’s works form a major part of the repertoire of Kirill Petrenko, who was himself general music director in Meiningen. Steinbach’s extremely flexible tempo choices in particular characterise Petrenko’s reading of the First Symphony, which he presented with the Berliner Philharmoniker at the season opening 2025. In the booklet accompanying the edition, which also includes the Tragic Overture, Maren Goltz and Peter Gülke provide indepth analyses of the creative process behind the symphony’s composition.
Contents and tracklist
Awards and reviews
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BBC Music MagazineMarch 2026Orchestral Choice
March 2026
I don't doubt Brahms would have approved, at any rate, of this rendition of his Tragic Overture, which is thrillingly done, vital with a richness of sound and drama that is maintained throughout its emotional span from its brief hints at reprieve to its final tragic demise.
January 2026
the playing of the Berlin Philharmonic on this album is a consistent pleasure. As well as the refinement and beauty of the playing of the solo instruments, textures are presented with exceptional balance and transparency.
20th November 2025
For this performance, Petrenko examined Meiningen Court Orchestra scores marked up with specific directions given by the composer himself. The results may strike some as interventionist, however there’s an organic momentum here that is hard to resist with a pronounced flexibility that, according to the excellent booklet essay, clarifies Brahms’s “furious struggle against the bar line”.
