Brahms Symphony No. 1

David Afkham, German-born conductor of the Spanish National Orchestra and Chorus, led the orchestra [Philadelphia] in such a dazzling performance I felt as though I never heard the First before. Gone was all pomposity. Instead, the structure of Brahms’s careful writing shone clear and bright, like a crystal scaffold embracing and releasing music of almost unbearable intensity.

Linda Holt, Broad Street Review