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In addition to showcasing superb musicianship, Mathieson's introduction and notes offer fascinating insight into her approach to the work:
"One of the things I love most about Brahms’ symphonic writing is the way he doesn’t erect any sort of performance-ready artifice around it. He hasn’t cleaned and polished it before taking it out of his shed, and he doesn’t make any attempt to disguise the tool marks.
The process of analysing, playing, and listening to his four symphonies is like revealing the grain of the timber, seeing the grooves of his thumb prints and chisel, running your hands over the nail heads, and exploring the box joints holding the walls of the piece together. The structure IS the piece, yet it is also full of love, warmth, and a generosity of sound.
It is the music of a craftsman and humanitarian, I think."
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