Brahms: Symphony No.4 / Schubert: Symphony No.5

Rudolf Kempe was one of the leading German conductors to emerge after the Second World War. It was difficult for anyone to have a major career in the vicinity of Berlin during Von Karajan's tenure, but Kempe managed to make records there as well as in Munich, and with the Staatskapelle Orchestra of his native Dresden he conducted a legendary series of recordings of the music of Richard Strauss. Appointed music director of the BBC Symphony in 1975, he seemed on the brink of the kind of valedictory period that often sets the seal on a conductor's reputation when he died suddenly at the age of 66. This disc of live recordings hints at what Kempe's London regime might have been like, and that, alas, is a lot. This is the kind of Brahms Fourth that is neither old-school nor new, just very right, big and spacious enough yet never sagging, warm yet always keen to the continuation of musical and dramatic lines. There is also much charm in the Schubert Fifth, though there is a noticeable "big band" approach at work here, perhaps demanded by the more than ample acoustics of the Royal Albert Hall.