Anton BRUCKNER (1824-1896)
Symphony No. 4 in E flat major, ‘Romantic’ (1880 edition ed. Nowak)
[67:08]
Dresden Staatskapelle/Herbert Blomstedt
rec. Dresden, 1981
DAL SEGNO DSPRCD045 [67:08]
This is a fine and idiomatic performance of Bruckner’s Romantic
Symphony, which has perhaps become the master’s best-loved work. It
was first recorded by Denon in 1981 and now reappears on Dal Segno at an appealing
price, making it a competitive option for potential purchasers. That said,
Dal Segno include no recording information in their rather thin documentation.
The sound quality is excellent, however, and there is no suggestion that the
twenty-year old recording is inadequate. As ever, the spacious first movement
sets the tone and scale for the whole. The beginning has a wonderfully atmospheric
quality, an E flat tonality which is very similar to that of the opening of
Wagner's Das Rheingold, a work that Bruckner new and loved.It
is the introductory role of the solo horn, surrounded as it is by tremolando
strings, that suggests the work's title, Romantic, and the playing
here is exemplary, at once confident, accurate and warm-toned. The atmosphere
offered by the acoustic seems just right and recalls that of the monastery
of St Florian where Bruckner worked. Blomstedt’s spacious tempo allows
the music to expand in an appropriate way. ‘Lively, but not too fast’,
says Bruckner, allowing the majesty of the dynamic range to make its mark.
The effect is undeniably impressive.
The ensuing dialogues between woodwinds and strings in flowing lyrical music
- the latter known as the gesängperiod (song-period) - are played poetically
with beautifully judged phrasing. The warmth of the string sound is also most
pleasing, recalling that found in the recordings of Gunter Wand, including
that master’s last recording of all, made with the North German Radio
Symphony Orchestra for RCA (74321
93041 2). Moreover Blomstedt’s performance reaches a most impressive
conclusion at the end of the first movement, a peroration that is at once
sonically satisfying and deeply logical.
The Andante has an eloquent cello cantilena, whose whispering violin
postlude proves the perfect foil. Blomstedt’s attention to the details
of dynamic shading reap just rewards. Perhaps the restrained, meditative chorale,
and the beautiful viola melody related to it, might have found just a little
more poetry, but the tempo matches Bruckner’s Andante marking.
The magnificent, epic climax towards the close is deeply satisfying.
The Symphony No. 4 was composed in 1874, but in 1878 and 1880 Bruckner revised
it, replacing the original scherzo and completely reworking the finale. The
work thus created received a successful premiere under Hans Richter in Vienna,
on 20 February 1881. The chief reason for its initial success was the new
scherzo movement, one of the most directly appealing examples of Bruckner's
art. Blomstedt and the Dresden orchestra respond to the atmospheric orchestration
and the thrilling horn fanfares, with their hunting allusions. The music builds
to a powerful and exciting climax, which is balanced by a lyrical trio of
magical calm.
The finale resumes the more purposeful agenda of the first movement, and is
built on the large scale. Out of the restrained opening a huge and massive
climax is generated, while once again there is the lyrical music of a gesängperiod
to provide the balance of contrast. And the final phase, replete with full
orchestral sonority, sounds suitably impressive.
Blomstedt recorded the symphony again with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
in 2006, but a quarter of a century on, it surely proved hard to better this
Dresden version as either recording or interpretation.
Terry Barfoot
A fine and idiomatic performance of Bruckner’s best-loved work, recorded
by Denon in 1981 and now reappears on Dal Segno at an appealing price.
see also review by Stephen Vasta