SCHUBERT: Symphony No. 4 “Tragic” D. 417 (1816); Symphony No. 5 in B flat, D. 485 (1816) – Netherlands Chamber Orchestra / Gordan Nikolic, leader – PentaTone multichannel SACD PTC186340; 67:54 ***1/2 [Distr. by Naxos]:
These two contrasting symphonies make an excellent coupling, the one dramatic, the other light-hearted and elegant. Both were written in 1816, and first performed in the house of the violinist Otto Hartwig with an orchestra of the size presented on this new recording.
The Fourth, with its elements of Sturm und Drang, its darkly humorous minuet and uneasy last movement gets a largely good and interesting reading here. However, there are a couple of untidy entries but more seriously, the balance between wind and strings too often favours the former with very odd effects, something I assume was a deliberate decision rather than a recording quirk. The occasional slow and wide vibrato from upper strings also tended to affect the listener’s attention, and the boomy diffuse timpani cloud the otherwise transparent texture.
The Fifth gets an altogether more successful reading, its elegant first and last movements coming off very well indeed. Occasionally, however, the Andante‘s legato is somewhat too fluid, and the odd slide seems forced, but the Minuet and Trio are nicely and lightly-pointed.
Gordan Nikolic and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra play with both intensity and charm; there is the sense of live music making in the results, and there are excellent wind and horn solos to be heard. PentaTone’s high resolution recording is very fine, those timpani apart, the sessions having taken place last December at the Yakult Hall in Amsterdam, one of PentaTone’s regular recording venues. There is a wide dynamic range, the recording reproducing both the fortissimos and the strings’ pianissimos realistically.
— Peter Joelson
