Karajan conducts Brahms: Symphony No. 2

Brahms's First Symphony famously cost him years of creative struggle, but with his Second, he relaxed and exhaled – retiring to the peace of the Alps to create a symphony that exudes warmth and song. Along with Beethoven and Bruckner, Herbert von Karajan placed Brahms's music at the centre of his symphonic career, and when he filmed the Second Symphony in 1986 with his great Berlin orchestra, sonic beauty shines from the music like sunlight. But there's gravity, too, and the finale has the kind of energy and brilliance that only Karajan and the BPO knew how to generate.

Ensemble: 

Berliner Philharmoniker

Conductor: 

Herbert von Karajan