The Columbia Symphony may not have been a first-class orchestra, but Bruno Walter trained to do the right things, and it responded with first-class accounts of the Brahms symphonies. While there are instances of less-than-crack ensemble, there is also some very fine first-desk playing, and the performances as a whole are marked by a natural feeling of movement, phrasing, and expression. Walter’s approach to the music is kindly, caring, wonderfully whole – sunny but not overly brilliant, warm but not overly heated, sincere but not overly impassioned. Anyone who thinks that means the conductor was slow, shapeless, or indulgent should listen. There is thrust here, and plenty of momentum. The recordings are closely miked and somewhat bass-heavy, but in Sony’s 20-bit remastering the sound is wonderfully alive and direct. – Ted Libbey, author of The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection

David Shifrin, clarinet; Chamber Music Northwest. Delos DE 3066 [Quintet].

Despite its name, Chamber Music Northwest is an assembly of New York regulars. They offer a subdued rather than searing account of the Clarinet Quintet, with leisurely tempos and a feeling more of point-to-point navigation through the score than of a single, seamless utterance. The ensemble is excellent, with sisters Ani and Ida Kavafian quite remarkably well matched on violin, their unisons, octaves and thirds uncannily together. The fluid, singing quality of Shifrin’s playing is admirable, and he shows an interpretive restraint in keeping with his view that the clarinet part should not be treated as a solo, but as one strand among five. The recording, made in March 1989, is intimate and highly satisfying. – Ted Libbey, author of The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection.