He was welcome in any concert hall in the world, but Maurice Abravanel (1903-93) spent 30 years in Salt Lake City, and the Utah Symphony accordingly became a world-class ensemble. Like the other albums we offer from Silverline Classics, each of these two-sided discs contains a superb performance in CD stereo on one side. Flip the disc over, and the other side presents the album in remastered sound for your DVD player, with additional video featurettes on the conductor and the music.
Among the most intricate and satisfying orchestral works of its era, Brahms's Symphony No. 4 is given an emphatic performance here by the Utah Symphony Orchestra. Showing Brahms's range, here too are the Tragic Overture and the jubilant Academic Festival Overture, which he mischievously based on college drinking songs.