“This performance by Hans Vonk and the Netherlands Radio symphony Orchestra is among the best I’ve heard, having all the lyricism and drama the music calls for, combined with a wonderful precision, sense of rhythm and articulateness. This PentaTone disc is in the empyrean class; it ranks amongst the finest I’ve been privileged to hear. The soundstage is excellent, with great stability and specificity of position, but it is the dynamics and timbre of the instruments, and the seemingly perfect acoustic of Studio 1 (at Hilversum, The Netherlands), that are most responsible for the sense of presence, the realism.”
Russell Lichter
The Stereo Times
“This excellent offering from PentaTone and the recently departed Hans Vonk (RIP) is the only readily available Brahms 2 on SACD. The superb recording is all DSD, and provides an expansive soundstage and impressive recreation of the recorded acoustic. The performances are first-rate as well.”
Tom Gibbs
Audiophile Audition
“ Vonk convinces with a very cautiously and sensitively developed tension which in a sovereign way transforms into a triumphant climax in the finale”.
Attila Csampai
Fono Forum (Germany)
“At last a Brahms symphony in SA-CD. This is a good steady reading and recording, well done by the PentaTone team. Can only jope the other three symphonies are to come in the future.”
SA-CD.net
“ Brahms second is presented here with great expressiveness…This PentaTone CD belongs to the best of what has been presented by the Dutch radio orchestras since years”.
Roland de Beer
de Volkskrant