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Title: a rare dud
Review: Every once and a while, even a great conductor gets it wrong. George Szell provided us with an awesome recording legacy, but this Brahms 4th, sorry to say, isn't part of it. This is a slow, lifeless performance that struggles desperately to get going but never does. The beautiful opening movement is heavy, dull, and depressing, with some truly awful balancing for those pizzicato strings. A strange and perplexing failure, because Szell is so masterly in the middle symphonies (2 and 3) by Brahms. Fortunately, Sony has put them both on one budget disc, and it is one of the great bargains in the catalogue. As far as the 4th goes, I think you're better off with Walter, also on Sony, Kleiber on DG, or a really great powerhouse from -- of all people -- Charles Munch and the BSO on RCA.
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