Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3 (Leonard Bernstein) (1973)

Leonard Bernstein leads the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in a revelatory performance of Brahms' Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3. Bernstein cited the Israeli orchestra as one of his favourites with which he worked in his long career. The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra's robust, thick-textured style has a beauty distinct form the leaner sound cultivated in our own time. Returning to the Brahms symphonies many times in his conducting career, Bernstein was never a conventional Brahmsian, but nor was he a complacent one content to recycle traditional habits.