No. 4 Archive
TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony Nos. 4, 5 – SWR Symphony Orchestra/ Hans Rosbaud – SWR
Hans Rosbaud appears before his Baden-Baden orchestra in spirited, vibrant renditions of two Tchaikovsky symphonies.
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony Nos. 4 & 11 – Boston Symphony Orchestra/ Andris Nelsons – DGG
A Shostakovich cycle of special merit, the Nelsons performances of symphonies 4 and 11 bring the BSO to fever pitch. SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op. 43; Symphony No. 11 in G minor, Op. 103 “The Year 1905” – Boston Symphony Orchestra/ Andris Nelsons – DGG B0028595-02 (2 CDs) 64:24; 62:59 (7/6/18) [Distr. by Universal] *****: The history of the Shostakovich Symphony No. 4 involves a tale of great frustration and upheaval in the life of the composer: soon after the Leningrad Philharmonic under Fritz Stiedry began rehearsals of this intricate and darkly apocalyptic work in August 1936, Soviet authorities cancelled the premiere on grounds of “elitist formalism,” that the aesthetic tenor of the work failed to conform to Party strictures about the “People’s art.” Already under a cloud created by Josef Stalin’s rebuke of the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Shostakovich conceived the Fourth as a kind of aesthetic obstinacy of musical principles. The actual debut of this post-Mahler, mammoth symphonic work came on 30 December 1961, under the direction of Kyrll Kondrashin. Doubtless, the persistent sense of tension and fear that abides in this music corresponds much to the spirit of the times, when a failure […]
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 4 & No. 7 – Boston Symphony Orchestra/ Serge Koussevitzky – Pristine Audio
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 4 in B-flat Major, Op. 60; Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92 – Boston Symphony Orchestra/ Serge Koussevitzky – Pristine Audio PASC 515, 70:15 [www.pristineclassical.com] *****: Previously unreleased Beethoven performances by Koussevitzky and BSO add significant documents to that conductor’s recorded legacy. “Rare Beethoven Symphony Recordings”: Producer and recording engineer Andrew Rose reminds us the Serge Koussevitzky (1876-1951) led the Boston Symphony in the Beethoven Fourth Symphony thirty-nine times, but until now, no recorded performance had ever been issued. This thirty-third rendition (6 March 1943, broadcast from Symphony Hall, Boston) had been withheld for various technical reasons which Rose catalogues—but the real point lies in the fact that much labor has been expended to correct pitch variations and sonic distortion, along with occasional missing notes—to produce a seamless document that we admirers of the conductor and his splendid ensemble can savor in excellent form. Koussevitzky takes a deliberately slow, lugubrious tempo in the minor mode to open the B-flat Symphony, indeed in what seems an adumbration of a grim event. Of course, what erupts becomes a testament to Beethoven’s epic humor, rollicking and ecstatically thundering at the heavens. The gem, the Adagio, allows the BSO […]
Mengelberg conducts TCHAIKOVSKY: Romeo and Juliet Overture; Symphony No. 4; Symphony No. 5; Serenade for Strings – Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam/ Willem Mengelberg – Pristine Audio
Mengelberg conducts TCHAIKOVSKY: The Complete Columbia Recordings, 1927-1930 = Romeo and Juliet – Fantasy Overture; Symphony No. 4 in f minor, Op. 36; Symphony No. 5 in e minor, Op. 64; Waltz from Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48 – Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam/ Willem Mengelberg – Pristine Audio PASC 511 (2 CDs) TT: 2:08:36 [www.pristineclassical.com] ****: Mark Obert-Thorn restores the ardent realizations of the Tchaikovsky legacy the tempestuous Mengelberg recorded for Columbia Records. While auditioning producer and restoration engineer Mark Obert-Thorn’s latest edition of Tchaikovsky works from Willem Mengelberg (1881-1951) for the Columbia label, I recall the several sessions I enjoyed with Stefan Bauer-Mengelberg (1927-1996) at SUNY Binghamton, where he taught for the School of Advanced Technology and occasionally conducted concerts with a mixed ensemble of SUNY players and professionals. Stefan often discussed his great-uncle’s conducting style, founded as it had been in a strongly Romantic, even self-indulgent, tradition. Huge manipulations of tempo and rhythmic pulse, orchestral slides, and shifting of dynamics had been standard performance practice. My own objection to the cuts Mengelberg takes in the Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony’s last movement prevented my wanting to broadcast his otherwise splendidly energetic performances, either on Columbia or Telefunken. […]
Sir John BARBIROLLI conducts = SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 6; NIELSEN: Symphony No. 4 – The Hallé Orch. – HDTT
Sir John BARBIROLLI conducts = SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 6; NIELSEN: Symphony No. 4 – The Hallé Orchestra – HDTT [various formats including hi-res PCM & DSD from www.highdeftapetransfers.com] [Reviewed from DSD64 files], TT: 64:33 Barbirolli shines in two works from Scandinavia. Sir John Barbirolli (1899-1970) was born in London; his father and grandfather were violinists at La Scala, Milan and young John learned the violin, too. He changed to playing the cello as a small boy and was taught first at Trinity College, London, then at the Royal Academy of Music. By sixteen, he was a cellist in Sir Henry Wood’s Queen’s Hall Orchestra. After the First World War, he continued playing in various orchestras; in addition, he appeared as soloist in concertos (he was an early adopter of Elgar’s Cello Concerto) and in a couple of string quartets. After gaining a lot of experience conducting in the concert hall and opera house, he formed his own chamber orchestra, the Barbirolli Chamber Orchestra, with whom he made recordings for HMV. He got an excellent reputation as accompanist in London for top soloists, and his recordings with Heifetz, Kreisler and Rubinstein won him much praise internationally. After a few years as […]
BEETHOVEN: Symphonies No. 4 & No. 7 – Beethoven Orchester Bonn – MDG
BEETHOVEN: Symphonies No. 4 & No. 7 – Beethoven Orchester Bonn – MDG multichannel SACD 937-1995-6, 73:35 (1/5/17) ****1/2: It is interesting to consider the position of the the Fourth Symphony Op. 60 in Beethoven’s oeuvre. First, consider the adjacent opus numbers, all products of that brief period of happiness and inspiration around 1806. There is the mighty Violin Concerto Op. 61. The three Razumovsky Quartets, Op. 59, each a world unto itself. And then comes the most distinctive of the concertos, the Fourth in G minor. Has there ever been a series of masterpieces lined up like this? All the more reason to ponder the Fourth Symphony, which is perhaps the least performed of the nine. Schumann esteemed it especially highly, calling it “a graceful Greek nymph standing between two Teutonic giants.” Indeed, I think it is the image of the Eroica Symphony that has the most to do with the relative eclipse of the Fourth. That work saw a seismic shift in the dimensions and technical resources of the medium. In the famous moment in the turbulent development section of the massive first movement, Beethoven makes a full-throated declaration of a C-major chord and immediately superimposes a D-minor […]
BRAHMS: The Four Symphonies; Overtures – Gewandhausorchester/ Riccardo Chailly – Decca (3-CDs)
Riccardo Chailly grants us a “revisionist” Brahms that departs from his 2005 cycle and reverts to the Classic detail and architecture of his model, Felix Weingartner.
MENDELSSOHN: Sym. No. 3, “Scottish”; Sym. No. 4 "Italian" – Heinz Holliger, cond. – MD&G
The “revised” version of the great Italian Symphony—but is it better?
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
