BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 4 in E-flat Major “Romantic” – Stuttgart Radio-Symphony Orchestra/ Carl Schuricht – Hanssler

by | Nov 16, 2005 | Classical Reissue Reviews | 0 comments

BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 4 in E-flat Major “Romantic” – Stuttgart
Radio-Symphony Orchestra/ Carl Schuricht – Hanssler CD 93.145 
69:03 (Distrib. Allegro) ****:

Volume 5 of the Hanssler Carl Schuricht Edition features a live
recording of Schuricht (1880-1967) in concert 4 May 1955. With his
responsive Stuttgart Radio-Symphony in Bruckner’s most popular symphony
(in its 1878 revision) Schuricht delivers an old world reading in high
colors; the hunt, the chorale, and the pantheistic sensibilities
prevail. Bruckner had originally conceived the music in a Schubert
tradition, as a kind of Volksfest, a celebration of the rural life of a
people.

The use of the falling-fifth motif might designate nature’s decline and
potential for renewal. Certainly, the huge pedal point in the last
movement, along with plummeting intervals, creates a kind of spiraling
motion which finds resolution in the apotheosis of the finale, some 65
measures long. Horns, strings, winds, and tympani rule in the various
processionals that mark this music’s periodic structure. Schuricht
elicits a funereal dirge-like quality in the Andante quasi allegretto,
a combination of song, prayer, and serenade. The music exults, sings,
warbles, and implores with never less than ardent energy, the
75-year-old Schuricht leading his forces with seamless efficiency. For
Bruckenrians and devoted students of conducting’s past masters, this
disc is well recorded and comes highly recommended.

–Gary Lemco

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