Bernstein conducts Brahms: Haydn Variations

Brahms wasn't a native of Vienna, but after he made his home in the Imperial city, he embraced its culture. For Leonard Bernstein, another composer-conductor with a passion for the Austrian capital, Brahms was a "North German classicist swept away to Vienna, and fired by Danubian, Carpathian and gypsy passions"– and in this spirited 1972 Wiener Philharmoniker performance of Brahms's Haydn Variations, he makes good on that vision. Captured in the golden hall of the Musikverein, this is a true meeting of kindred spirits – Brahms's tribute to Haydn, recreated by an orchestra and a conductor like no other.

Ensemble: 

Wiener Philharmoniker

Conductor: 

Leonard Bernstein