I was prompted to hear this recording after reading so many glowing reviews by mycolleagues. Is it as good as they say it is? Yes, it is! Tintner's dedication and scrupulously meticulous attention to Bruckner's enormous, monumental score is clearly evident in every bar.

Tintner's Bruckner scholarship deeply impresses too, as his CD booklet notes reveal. How many other conductors will insist on this level of commitment?

Tintner is exemplary in his pacing, phrasing and shading, carefully controlled crescendos - beginning softly and working slowly, inevitably but unhurriedly forwards - and in his terracing of the great majestic climaxes to achieve the maximum impact that Bruckner surely desired. The misty, hushed strings opening of the first movement with its horn calls and answering woodwinds is magical. Just listen to how seamlessly yet powerfully Tintner shapes this opening into the radiant main theme with its glorious fanfare decorations. Tintner offers some fascinating interpretative insights of the detail of this movement in his notes.

The gentle funeral march and the lovely long-spanned song for the violas supported by the plucked notes of the other strings of the second movement is handled with considerable finesse while the famous hunting scherzo horn music blazes out most thrillingly. (Tintner tells us that the "... wonderful Trio represents the hunters unpacking and eating their cheese!").

This symphony was written originally in 1874 but Bruckner radically revised its detail in 1877-78.

In 1880 he composed yet another Finale and this is the version that is usually played (as in this performance). As Tintner says: "It is considered by some to be sombre for the rest of the work, but I do not share this view and think it is the crowning glory of this wonderful symphony..." His glowing and majestic reading, contrasting light and shade, innocent charm and strong assertive heroics, is a strong advocate for his argument. This has to be the new benchmark recording of Bruckner's 4th Symphony.

Reviewer

Ian Lace

 

Ian Lace