Brahms: Academic Festival Overture; Symphony No. 1; Variations on a Theme by Haydn (RCA Victor Basic 100, Vol. 18)

RCA has given us this First Sym., which is recorded with dramatic up-closeness. The impact of the sound boosts the excitement of an already propulsive, heart-on-sleeve reading. Only in the knife-edge finale does the sound become too brash. By contrast, the opening Academic Festival Over. from the well-meaning but somnolent Slatkin is totally forgetable, as is the other filler, Ormandy's proficient, beautifully played Haydn Variations, made in his drowsy autumnal switch from Columbia to RCA.