More than most composers, the symphonies of Anton
Rubinstein have been maligned by critics down the years. Given the shrunken
attention span with which people generally approach art in the 21st
century, it comes as little surprise that the rubbishing continues even
today in some quarters - for most of the criticism levelled at Rubinstein's
symphonies can be reduced to comments pertaining to their perceived
'prolixity'. The sixty-five minute Fourth is a case in point. Rubinstein
called it his 'Dramatic' Symphony, but how can any musical work lasting
over an hour be dramatic?
Rubinstein's great Austrian contemporary namesake Anton Bruckner has
a fanatical following despite the massive proportions of his own symphonies,
but he is likewise a composer that some critics love to hate, with one
English music journalist recently describing him as "the lumbering loony
of Linz". She went on to describe her opinion of his symphonies in words
that might be paraphrases of some of the venom aimed at Rubinstein over
the years: "[His] symphonies are stiflingly, crushingly, oppressive.
Once you're in one, you can't get out again. Spend too long in their
grip and you lose the will to live. They are cold-blooded and exceedingly
long, and they go round and round in circles."
So it is that Rubinstein's serious-minded preference to work his symphonic
ideas out over unusually long spans is equated with 'rambling' tendencies
or a lack of coherence, although it should be noted that Bruckner-demonising
critic Eduard Hanslick was kinder to Rubinstein. Oddly, even the booklet
notes say that "no matter how brilliant the thematic content [...] may
be, how many compositional and structural virtues it offers, or how
successful it is in certain sections - the work is not particularly
impressive as a complete and unified work nowadays". With sophistic
criticism like this Rubinstein seems perpetually tarnished. What literary
writer would say the same about the even more 'long-winded' Tolstoy
or 'digressive' Turgenev?
As it happens, another minor symphonist by the name of Tchaikovsky praised
the
Dramatic highly at the time, citing its "masterly technique,
daring invention in the choice of idioms and narration of ideas." Tchaikovsky
likened it to Beethoven, but in fact it sounds much more like Tchaikovsky
himself, particularly in his early symphonies. The memorable finale,
however, is more of a cross between Dvořák's nature tone
poems and Brahms's First Piano Concerto.
The ‘Dramatic’
is a long work, and the drama is as
subtle as Chekhov sometimes, but it is also hugely lyrical, moderately
melancholic and eminently likeable. A second and third listen-through
are of especial benefit, when the material - of which there is a vast
and varied amount - will be more familiar and the scope of Rubinstein's
orchestral imagination better appreciated.
Igor Golovchin keeps the SSOR pretty well disciplined overall, and their
appreciation of Rubinstein's structures and ideas is well communicated
by a genial performance. The only other recording was made around the
same time as this by the Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra under Robert
Stankovsky on the Marco Polo label (8.223319), more recently reissued
on Naxos (
8.555979)
- now distributors, coincidentally, for this Delos release. In fact,
that Stankovsky recording is broadly comparable, both in terms of audio
quality and standards of performance, with the Delos just edging it.
Running times overall are almost identical, although the adagio third
movement is taken much faster by Stankovsky, and the largo finale more
slowly.
Sound quality is very decent, especially considering that the recording
is now twenty years old and made behind what had only recently ceased
to be the Iron Curtain (Russian Disc RDCD 11357). There is no more than
minor thinness of sound apparent, chiefly in the strings. This CD, incidentally,
forms part of a series of Russian Disc recordings now being reissued
by Delos - hence the catalogue number prefix 'DRD' instead of the usual
'DE'. The back cover of the booklet gives further details. The notes
are fairly sparse, imported and edited as they are from the original,
but they offer as much information as most are likely to need about
the 'Dramatic' Fourth Symphony.
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at artmusicreviews.co.uk
See also review by
Nick
Barnard 
