• Both Schubert and Brahms, paired on a new disc from the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique conducted by John Eliot Gardiner (SLG), felt the influence of Beethoven, especially in their efforts to write symphonies. Yet the lightness and transparency of Schubert’s Symphony No 5 in B flat major, D485 (small orchestra, no clarinets, trumpets or timpani) owes, if anything, more of a debt to Mozart. This buoyant live recording made in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw brings out the daring contrasts and sudden key changes of this essentially radiant work. The immediacy of the recorded sound, the rasping woodwind and lean string sonorities suit the music, unless you prefer your Schubert smooth.
Brahms, deterred from writing a proper symphony until midlife, first experimented with two extended orchestral Serenades. The No 2 in A, Op 16 (1858-9, rev. 1873) has five movements, no violins and double woodwind, giving prominence to the woodwind and creating an unusual, almost outdoor mood, especially in the rumbustious Scherzo. This tender, early Brahms, dedicated to his friend and mentor Clara Schumann, isn’t played often in the concert hall. Worth knowing if you don’t already.
• Violinist Kati Debretzeni frequently leads Gardiner’s English Baroque Soloists, as well as many other period instrument ensembles. She plays Beethoven’s Three Piano Trios Op 1 with Sebastian Comberti (cello) and Maggie Cole (fortepiano) – the Trio Goya – on the Chaconne label. Fresh, poised, alert to all dynamic possibilities, this is invigorating period instrument playing at its best.
• Stem your end-of-Proms woe by listening to Hear and Now’s Dream Sequence from the After Party of the Last Night of the Proms (first broadcast last night on Radio 3, now on iPlayer). Devised and composed by Neil Luck, presented by Tom Service, with members of Arco and the Squib Box collective and more, this kaleidoscope of speech and music promises to be a radiophonic reverie of the most eccentric kind.
