The Consensus Reference Recordings of Brahms

Gil Zilkha, singer/collector/music enthusiast
In this installment of Essential Classical Music, I cover the consensus reference recordings of the major Brahms works. This video is taken from my larger video covering the consensus reference recordings of the core classical music repertoire.
Featured works:
Symphonies Nos. 1-4
Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
Violin Concerto
Clarinet Quintet
Piano Quintet
Ein Deutsches Requiem

[@classicallpvault8251]

Klemperer's Brahms 1 is fabulous.

[@Madjed2024]

My dear Gil
I wish you also shared as part of other marvelous chamber music ref recordings for
The two sextets
And the trios
Any intent to do a video on these ?

[@GilZilkha]

Coming soon!

[@andrewashdown3541]

I'm unsure what your definition of 'reference' or 'consensus' is ...'people in the know'.... By those rather nebulous 'definitions', I could as easily cite Cantelli, Loughran, Paray, Wand, Barenboim, Kubelik, Kondrashin, none of whom you mention. I'd be more convinced if you gave your own honest opinion. Following 'people in the know' , i.e. the almost always wrong critics, is a counsel of despair.

[@GilZilkha]

I defined this in my larger video. It’s an imperfect science, of course, and more often than not represents a plurality as opposed to majority. You could easily cite others, but I don’t think they are as often mentioned as the ones I cited. I recommend my own choices in other videos which you can easily look up. For example, in the four symphonies, only the Kleiber 4th is one I count as my own first choice.

[@andrewashdown3541]

@@GilZilkha Kleiber agreed. But there is very little to separate many of the rest.

[@wkasimer]

The problem with "consensus" choices is that they will invariably favor recordings that a) have been around for a long time, b) are on major labels and thus are relatively easy to find, and c) date from the 60's and 70's, when recordings tended to stay in print for many years (as opposed to more modern recordings, which sometimes disappear within a few months). And of course, they favor famous artists - most of them, of course, deserve their fame, but some really don't.
But these Brahms choices are mostly pretty solid - it's hard not to recommend Klemperer and Walter for Brahms symphonies, or Oistrakh for the violin concerto. I'm less enamored of the Gilels/Jochum piano concertos, particularly #2.

[@GilZilkha]

I love the majestic Gilels/Jochum #2. The tempo shift halfway through the second movement works very well, and I have not heard a more beautiful rendition of the Andante.