A synopsis with caveats

There is not now, nor will there ever be, some kind of Holy Grail awaiting discovery, its contents disclosing the true gospel of the interpretation of Brahms's orchestral music. We can never know precisely how, in audible terms, Brahms conducted his symphonies or wanted them to be performed. This strong caveat to the conclusions reached in this chapter – which will already be obvious to those familiar with the preliminary conclusions scattered throughout preceding chapters – is an inevitable reflection of what was termed at the outset the ‘tantalising’ period in which Brahms lived: the era which saw the birth of the virtuoso conductor but failed for the most part to preserve his work in recorded sound. Who among Brahms lovers, would not wish to hear the performances of those conductors with whom the composer was familiar, among them Hans von Bülow, Hermann Levi, Hans Richter, Fritz Steinbach and Arthur Nikisch? And, if that wish were granted, how near to the mind of the creator would we place their interpretations? As it is, we are necessarily reliant on the printed word to bring us near to the spirit of conductors contemporary with Brahms. The second best, with which this study has also been concerned, is to trace, through everything reported about Brahms's own performances, together with his favoured conductors and their disciples and admirers, what it was that attracted the composer and, where the disciples left recordings, to isolate those characteristics which are most suggestive of their silent predecessors.

Chapters 2 and 3 undertook the task of tracing the lines of authority of the conductors known to have received Brahms's blessing, through their disciples (if any), and so, by means of recorded sound, to those performances which may have preserved for us something of the spirit and characteristics heard and approved by the composer. That task has been an inextricable mixture of detective work and a monstrous jigsaw puzzle, although in just one instance there is, on the face of it, a direct and uncomplicated line of authority linking us with the composer: Brahms strongly approved the performance of his Second Symphony conducted in Vienna by Felix Weingartner in 1895 and Weingartner went on to record the four symphonies in the studio in later years. These performances would at first sight seem to have an excellent pedigree.