Of the few Barenboim/CSO Erato discs I have been courageous enough to buy, this one has proven not to be a complete disaster. The Academic Festival Overture manages to bounce along nicely to a quick end, despite the unhelpful recording acoustics and Barenboim manages a few insightful intrepretive cues in the 4th Symphony. In the competitive field of Brahms recordings however, there are many rivals who outshine Barenboim here. As such this disc sadly falls somewhere in the middle (not a place to be) in my Brahms collection. Recommended for CSO aficionados nonetheless.