Famed violinist Isaac Stern leads both the Brahms & the Berg concertos on this disc. On the Double Concerto, he’s accompanied by Yo-Yo Ma’s cello and Claudio Abbado conducting the Chicago Symphony; on the Chamber Concerto, Peter Serkin accompanies on piano and Abbado conducts members of the LSO. This is kind of a weird pairing of works if you ask me. I’ve read people saying that placing these two works next to each other brings out hidden riches and similarities; whatever – I didn’t have that experience. I didn’t take to this album that much. I was very surprised to like the Berg piece far better than the Brahms piece; I have reacted very negatively to Berg in the past, but I think this one works. One of the reasons I have to say is Peter Serkin who gives a really nuanced and smart performance on the piano. He could get bombastic and he does at times, but he also finds the nuances and brings them out. Anyway, I wouldn’t say this is a particularly good classical album. Odd composition choices in an odd pairing with fairly flat sound quality . . . give this one a miss. 2 stars.
tl;dr – strange pairing of compositions doesn’t really work and the performances are only occasionally inspired; give this one a miss. 2 stars.