Overview

Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt brings his eloquent exactitude to two treasures of the German symphonic tradition, both indebted to earlier masters. In a diary entry that Schubert wrote around the time he composed his Fifth Symphony, he raved about the “haunting” influence of Mozart. Brahms worked on his First Symphony for more than 20 years, in fitful bursts, followed by bouts of recrimination and revision. Like Schubert, he fretted obsessively about living up to Beethoven’s example.