These two performances featuring Klaus Tennstedt (1926–1998) and the Stuttgart RSO were separated by only forty-one months, and yet Tennstedt’s life changed dramatically during this short period. In 1971 he escaped from the German Democratic Republic, and by 1976 he was established in both Europe and in the United States as a master of the core Austro-German repertoire. The Martinu is a new addition to Tennstedt’s discography, highlighting the work of this lesser-known but very important composer (a set of the complete Martinu Symphonies won a Gramophone Award in 2012). The live 1976 concert performance from Göppingen of Brahms’s Symphony No.1 demonstrates Tennstedt’s great affinity with this symphony in a dramatic and urgent reading. This is the first release of this material outside Japan. This recording marks a new and exciting relationship between ICA Classics and the SWR in Stuttgart.