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Brahms: Symphony No. 4 / Dausgaard, Swedish Chamber Orchestra

BIS

SACD

$10.99 ~~$21.99~~ Save 50% Aug 07, 2020

Begun in 2012 with the release of Symphony No. 1, Thomas Dausgaard’s four-album traversal of the symphonies of Johannes Brahms is here brought to a close with the composer’s final work in the genre. The E minor Symphony is sometimes described as Brahms’ ‘elegiac symphony’, and has been called ‘one of the greatest orchestral works since Beethoven’. Typical for the composer is the striking degree of motivic relationships throughout the work. This includes the finale in which Brahms demonstrates his full mastery in a towering Passacaglia consisting of 30 variations and a coda. The smallish forces of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra contribute to a transparency and clarity which bring out the finer details of Brahms’ compositional web. As on previous installments, the symphony is coupled with other works by Brahms. Included on the present release is another late work, Tragic Overture, which concludes the programme. These two ‘serious’ works frame some of the most rousing and ebullient music Brahms ever wrote, namely his Hungarian Dances. Composed for piano four-hands, the 21 dances became immensely popular, and Brahms arranged three of them for orchestra himself. Having made his own orchestrations of the remaining 18 dances, Thomas Dausgaard has recorded the full set for his Brahms cycle, with the final nine dances included here.

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Brahms: Symphony No. 4 / Dausgaard, Swedish Chamber Orchestra
BIS Aug 2020
SACD
~~$21.99~~ $10.99

Mahler: Symphony No. 4 in G Major

Cameo Classics

$16.99 Aug 02, 2019

Thanks to his unusually strong affinity with Haydn and grasp of classical structures, Josef Krips proves a near-ideal conductor for the Fourth Symphony. Noting Mahler's repeated 'nicht eilen' ('don't rush') markings, Krips never hurries the music or indulges in unnecessary point-making, least of all in the radiant variations of the poco adagio third movement. The score unfolds with natural charm and warmth, lovingly communicated by the LSO's string section - led by Hugh Maguire, whose 'Death the Fiddler' is gauged at just the right level of grotesquery. With Suzanne Danco a pristine soloist in the finale, childlike but never childish, this is a beautifully-judged performance of a work which can too easily sound overstated, faux-naif or both.

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Mahler: Symphony No. 4 in G Major
Cameo Classics Aug 2019
CD
$16.99

Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 / Dausgaard, Bergen Philharmonic

BIS

SACD

$10.99 ~~$21.99~~ Save 50% May 05, 2023

After acclaimed recordings of the Third (‘Dausgaard… makes the music sound vital and even revolutionary’, Fanfare) and Sixth (‘This persuasively played work could be no better served’, MusicWeb International), Thomas Dausgaard and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra now present Anton Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony, ‘Romantic’ in its second version (1878-1880), the one with which this work has become widely known. “Nothing like this has been written since Beethoven” conductor Hans Richter is said to have declared after the successful premiere of Bruckner's Fourth Symphony in Vienna in 1881. This success finally gave the 56-year-old composer the attention and recognition he sorely needed and one can affirm that it was from this day onwards that Bruckner was actually cultivated in Vienna after years of public humiliation. Despite its nickname given by the composer himself, this symphony in no way expresses existential pain. Rather, the romanticism refers to the experience of nature – from sublime forest magic to hunting scenes – emphasized by the horn, the quintessential romantic instrument, which is given a prominent role.

REVIEW:

Dausgaard emerged early on as one of the most convincing HIP conductors of standard repertoire, and he has earned the right to express his individuality in Bruckner under normal conditions, one might say. His involvement with the score is undoubted, which makes the issue of fast tempos mostly irrelevant. Being different is worthwhile only when the difference is musically meaningful. I think that Dausgaard easily passes that test, in a Bruckner Fourth that is among the most striking in years.

-- Fanfare

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Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 / Dausgaard, Bergen Philharmonic
BIS May 2023
SACD
~~$21.99~~ $10.99

Weigl: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 6

Capriccio

$21.99 Nov 01, 2019

In terms of style, with his works linked to basic tonalities Weigl drew on the sound realm of late Romanticism, from whose aesthetics he never departed in favour of more progressive contemporary trends. Whereas Weigl’s Symphony No. 1, written in 1908, associatively evokes the mood of a composer thinking of new territory and inquiring into the future, the dissimilar pair of his Symphonies Nos. 4 and 6 shows the musician’s intellect at historically distinctive periods, allowing an assessment to be made as to whether what could be expected, intended and hoped for at the time of his early works was achieved or whether it developed in an entirely different manner. The background to Symphony No. 4 in 1936 was the emergence of dictatorial Austro-Fascism. Symphony No. 6 of 1947 is in a certain sense a continuation and a conclusion following the end of the Nazi terror and a war that did not remain without profound changes and far-reaching effects for almost all the countries in the world.

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Weigl: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 6
Capriccio Nov 2019
CD
$21.99

TCHAIKOVSKY: SYMPHONY NO.4 MUSSORGSKY: PICTURES

LSO LIVE

SACD

$13.99 Feb 08, 2019

Widely recognized as one of the leading conductors of his generation, LSO Principal Guest Conductor Gianandrea Noseda presents the first release in a new series exploring Tchaikovsky's final three symphonies. Urgent, supercharged and violent in places, Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.4 is said to reflect the turmoil he found himself in while composing: a disastrous marriage, struggles with his sexuality and severe depression. Yet, despite the gloomy outlook, the symphony proves undoubtedly that Tchaikovsky knew how to fill his works with memorable melodies. Known for his mastery of Russian repertoire, for this album Noseda pairs Tchaikovsky with a masterpiece by his fellow countryman, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, performed here in Ravel's iconic orchestration.

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TCHAIKOVSKY: SYMPHONY NO.4 MUSSORGSKY: PICTURES
LSO LIVE Feb 2019
SACD
$13.99

Symphonie No. 4 Lieder Eines
Orfeo Jul 1999
CD
$16.99

Mozart: Symphonies IV – Nos. 4, 5, 6, 10, & 12

Genuin

$20.99 Mar 07, 2025

A child prodigy on tour: Instead of bringing home holiday snapshots, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart returned with brilliant compositions, transforming the music and experiences he encountered on his travels into something uniquely his own. The Folkwang Chamber Orchestra Essen, under the vibrant direction of Johannes Klumpp, now brings Mozart's symphonic travel memories to life for us. This thrilling new GENUIN release is the fifth instalment in a series of highly praised Mozart recordings. Critics consistently highlight the ensemble's "outstanding technical skill" and praise "the conductor and orchestra as ideal interpreters of Mozart"!

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Mozart: Symphonies IV – Nos. 4, 5, 6, 10, & 12
Genuin Mar 2025
CD
$20.99

Brahms: Symphony No. 4 - Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4, "Itali

ICA Classics

$11.99 ~~$14.99~~ Save 20% Feb 26, 2013

Just prior to the Second World War, Sir Adrian single-handedly built the BBC Symphony Orchestra into a world-renowned ensemble. This live 1975 Proms performance of Brahms's Symphony No.4 has never been issued before. It has been recorded in stereo and fully captures the 'Indian summer' that Boult enjoyed at the Proms and in the studio with EMI at the time.

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Brahms: Symphony No. 4 - Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4, "Itali
ICA Classics Feb 2013
CD
~~$14.99~~ $11.99

Shostakovich: Symphony No 4 / Petrenko

Naxos

$19.99 Oct 29, 2013

There are a lot of performances of this remarkable symphony available now, but this one stands out as having a truly distinctive and persuasive point of view. The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, however well it plays, isn’t an orchestral powerhouse like the Chicago Symphony (Previn) or Kondrashin’s Moscow Philharmonic, but Vasily Petrenko more than compensates for any lack of sheer heft with an extra jolt of energy and a razor-sharp rhythmic attack. Listen to the strings dig into the music right after the first movement’s “climax of fugal insanity”. If the preceding din isn’t exactly paint-peeling, it’s still very exciting, and as you can hear, Petrenko sustains the tension very well, providing an unusual degree of continuity to a movement that easily tends to break up into a sequence of disconnected episodes.

The scherzo also is unusually characterful—slower than the norm, which only makes it more gaunt and spooky. The “tick-tock” percussion at the end is especially clear, and disturbingly mechanical. As for the gripping finale, not only is the wacky ballet suite interlude remarkably fun, but Petrenko really unleashes the hounds in the form of some magnificently braying brass in the final chorale. This is one of those performances that justifies purchasing yet another recording of what is becoming a relatively well-known work. It confirms the piece as a true classic, in the sense that a variety of approaches reveals an endless series of valid interpretive possibilities. The performance is also extremely well recorded, naturally balanced, and vividly present. Wonderful.

– David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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Shostakovich: Symphony No 4 / Petrenko
Naxos Oct 2013
CD
$19.99

Brahms: Violin Concerto; Schumann: Symphony No 4 / Steinbacher, Luisi

Orfeo

$20.99 Jan 27, 2011

The Violin Concerto in D Major op. 77 by Johannes Brahms is for performers and audience alike one of the loveliest, most challenging examples of the genre. It was with this work that Arabella Steinbacher gave her debut in the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein in December 2007, the same hall where the composer himself had conducted on occasion. Arabella Steinbacher's debut was accompanied by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under its chief conductor Fabio Luisi, who are also to be heard on this live recording in Schumann's Fourth Symphony. Both this symphony and the Brahms concerto were dedicated to the leading violin virtuoso of the second half of the 19th century, namely Joseph Joachim. He did not just inspire Brahms to write this work, but also helped him in word and deed during the act of composition (if impatiently, when it came to keeping the deadline for the world première). The work soon began a triumphal procession through the concert halls. Thanks to Joachim's numerous famed successors, it would be impossible to imagine the concert repertoire today without it. Arabella Steinbacher won the Joachim Violin Competition in Hanover several years ago, which was a starting point of her current international career. She is furthermore a worthy representative of the violin style that is celebrated in Brahms's concerto, a style that is virtuosic without virtuosity becoming an end in itself. Thanks to her much-praised brilliant, precise tone, the listener remains aware throughout that the solo part never recedes completely into the background, even where the orchestra unfolds its most expansive symphonic arguments - such as in the presentation of the work's themes and in the sensitive orchestration of the first and second movements. Arabella Steinbacher fully savours the works' variety of colour and climax. In the brilliant cadenza of the first movement and in the highly spirited third, she draws on an embarrassment of virtuosic riches almost as a matter of course. It is masterly.

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Brahms: Violin Concerto; Schumann: Symphony No 4 / Steinbacher, Luisi
Orfeo Jan 2011
CD
$20.99

Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 / Poschner, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony

Capriccio

$21.99 May 05, 2023

Bruckner’s frantic revisions of his symphonies Nos. 3, 4, and 8 were borne out of his disappointment with Hermann Levi rejecting the original version of the 8th symphony. Helping in this large-scale revamping effort were former Bruckner-students Franz and Joseph Schalk, Ferdinand Löwe, Max von Oberleithner, and Cyrill Hynai, which resulted in these versions’ reputation – and especially that of the last version of the 4th – being varnished as something not quite Echt-Bruckner.

It wasn’t until the discovery of photographs of the 1888 version’s manuscript score and the subsequent publication of Benjamin Korstvedt’s edition thereof that it became clear: This late edition really did reflect Bruckner’s intentions. To ears familiar with the still better-known 1881 version, the result might sound mystifying, even troubling, but it also surprises with many particularly exquisite passages!

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Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 / Poschner, ORF Vienna Radio Symphony
Capriccio May 2023
CD
$21.99

Brahms: Symphony No 4, Hungarian Dances / Alsop, London PO

Naxos

$19.99 Sep 25, 2007

Top Brahms!

Here it is: the final release in the set of Brahms symphonies from Marin Alsop with the London Philharmonic. Previous reviews have praised just about every aspect of this new Naxos cycle, and while I admit to arriving somewhat late on the scene I have to admit that all expectations are realised.

So that you know where I’m coming from, my formative introduction to the symphonies of Brahms came with the 1983 live cycle on DG with Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic. The influence of those initial impressions of intensity and edgy freedom of expression are of course hard to shake, but there is always more than one way to skin a great piece of music, and later on I was as likely to be found settling down with a good book and Herbert von Karajan’s 1989 recordings with the Berlin Philharmonic. Other versions have passed my way as well – Günter Wand’s 2001 RCA cycle with the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra for instance, and those lovely old Bruno Walter recordings with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra now on Sony, which still sound surprisingly good given their vintage.

If done properly, Brahms’s symphonic writing means that you will have read the same page a multitude of times in that ‘good book’ you have in your hand while listening. The content and meaning of the words will remain as obscure as at the first attempt as your ears and attention are absorbed and enthralled by the lush musical garden that gradually unfolds through your loudspeakers, or in my case headphones. With Alsop and the LPO you might as well give up on reading at all, and give yourself over to a feast of wonderful music-making.

Marin Alsop’s tempi are measured and sustained in what seems to me an ideal way in this symphony. The first movement seems at first urbane and restrained, but the ceiling is set high, and there is plenty of room for bite and drama in the music – never hurried or unstable, but with a gloss of perfect preparation which seems to allow the listener to plunge directly and deeply into Brahms’s inspired vision. The same is true of the second Andante moderato movement, in which the winds initially shine with lush resonance. Intonation is crucial here, and the LSO’s wind and brass are spot on – playing as one. The timing and anticipation is beautifully measured in advance of the ‘big tune’ at 8:55, which is turned out here without histrionics, but as a noble and almost infinite field of sound – a bounteous source for a composer like Elgar, whose own ‘Enigma’ variations spring immediately to mind.

A lightness of touch is required of the third movement’s Allegro giocoso, and Alsop blows away any cobwebs which may have gathered in a sweep of freshness. There’s a slightly anticipatory rhythm at 4:23 caused by an edit, but this will hopefully only be noticeable to fully trained and overly picky reviewers. The final movement brings back the measured, sustained feel of the first, but with that extra turbulence, and those quicksilver touches of detail in the orchestration pointed subtly and superbly by all concerned in this recording. I was wondering if that slow central section wasn’t just a little too slow and lingering, but the re-entry of the full orchestra at around 6:00 is made all the more magical for being delayed for that extra few ounces of ‘down-time’, and the final run builds in intensity to create a fully satisfying close.

The Hungarian Dances presented here are the ‘leftovers’ from Brahms’s own orchestrations of nos. 1, 3 and 10, covered in volume 2 of this series. The dances here have been newly orchestrated by Peter Breiner in an imaginative commission from Naxos especially for this recording. Breiner’s versions respect Brahms’s orchestral resonances for the most part, but inject quite a bit of extra jazzy impact and violinistic Hungarian idiom, emphasising some of those seriously fun syncopations with extra percussion and brass. There is a danger of creating a set of little P.D.Q. Bach monsters here, but with the essence of Brahms’s ideas held largely intact I admire the way Breiner has stretched these pieces just enough to make them into genuine orchestral showpieces, without turning the smiles they bring into disrespectful guffaws.

I think the way is clear – I simply must have the rest of this set.

-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International

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Brahms: Symphony No 4, Hungarian Dances / Alsop, London PO
Naxos Sep 2007
CD
$19.99

Franz Ignaz Beck: Symphonies Op. 4, Nos. 4-6 & Op. 3, No. 5

Naxos

$9.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 50% Dec 09, 2014

The court at Manneheim, one of Europe’s great 18th-century musical centers, provided myriad opportunities for creative development. Having absorbed the ideas of his teacher, Johann Stamitz and other luminaries, Beck wrote a series of symphonies notable for their dramatic contrasts, breadth and sweep, the progressive inclusion of the woodwinds and a willingness to explore expressive intensity. His progressive use of woodwind instruments in the Symphony in G major, Op. 4 No. 5 is among the notable developments to be heard in this second recording of Beck symphonies by Marek Štilec and the Czech Chamber Philharmonic.

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Franz Ignaz Beck: Symphonies Op. 4, Nos. 4-6 & Op. 3, No. 5
Naxos Dec 2014
CD
~~$19.99~~ $9.99

Brahms: Symphony No. 4 - Haydn: Symphony No. 101

BR Klassik

$19.99 Aug 02, 2019

Otto Klemperer was one of the most important German conductors of the 20th century. After his return from emigration he guest-conducted some of the most important orchestras in Germany - including the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. He did not assume the position of Chief Conductor in his homeland again, however: he felt estranged and alienated from post-war Germany, and this was compounded by his advanced age and poor health. In April 1956, Klemperer conducted the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks for the very first time - the debut of a man who was almost 71 years old. Up to May 1969, he would conduct a total of eleven evening concerts in Munich. The audiences were always just as delighted as the critics. The latter emphasized the "utmost perfection" of his interpretations and were aware that, due to the conductor's advanced age and state of health, the Munich concerts bore "the seal of the unrepeatable", and that "those fortunate enough to hear these concerts will remember them all their lives". This new album from BR-KLASSIK features Klemperer's interpretations of Haydn's Symphony No. 101, "The Clock" (recorded in the concerts of October 18 and 19, 1956), and Brahms' Fourth Symphony (recorded on September 26 and 27, 1957). - Both works form part of the core classical and romantic symphonic concert repertoire with which Klemperer, like his Munich orchestra, was so familiar.

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Brahms: Symphony No. 4 - Haydn: Symphony No. 101
BR Klassik Aug 2019
CD
$19.99

Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 7 / Blunier, Beethoven Orchester Bonn

MDG

SACD

$18.99 ~~$24.99~~ Save 25% Apr 07, 2017

The Beethoven Orchestra of Bonn concludes its complete recording of the symphonies of the composer whose name it bears with an absolutely rousing performance. The spirited Seventh Symphony brings together everything that General Music Director Stefan Blunier has demanded of his musicians from the very beginning of this cycle: emotional depth, gripping rhythms, frenetic energy, and powerful tension holding the audience in suspense even after the last chord has faded away. Prior to this work, however, the Bonn musicians show the Fourth Symphony in an entirely new light: no longer a bashful “wallflower,” it shines in its own special way between its two more famous neighbors.

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Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 7 / Blunier, Beethoven Orchester Bonn
MDG Apr 2017
SACD
~~$24.99~~ $18.99

MAHLER: SYMPHONY 4
UNIVERSAL JAPAN Dec 2018
SACD
$25.99

Anton Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 4, 6 & 7

Andromeda

$16.99 Apr 29, 2014

Otto Klemperer is, to this day, still considered one of the great Bruckner conductors. His EMI studio recordings made in the 1960's remain benchmark reference recordings. This 3CD collection of live Bruckner recordings from the 1950's and 1960's, a welcome addition to his famed studio recordings, finds Klemperer leading three of the finest European orchestras. Newly remastered.

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Anton Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 4, 6 & 7
Andromeda Apr 2014
CD
$16.99

Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 (1878 version, ed. W. Carragan)

Profil

$18.99 Feb 25, 2014

This recording is based on the edition of Prof. William Carragan (Version 1878), which is oriented towards the Nowak Edition. It is shorter and much catchier than the usually performed version. The strings have the upper hand here instead of the brass, but the four horns do resurface with reminiscences of the first movement. Gerd Schaller leads the Philharmonie Festiva. Live recording.

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Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 (1878 version, ed. W. Carragan)
Profil Feb 2014
CD
$18.99

Mendelssohn: Symphony No 4, Etc / Johannes Wildner, Et Al
Amadis Oct 1995
CD
$16.99

Shostakovich: Symphony No 4 / Boreyko, Southwest German Rso

SWR

$10.49 ~~$20.99~~ Save 50% Feb 15, 2007

Shostakovich’s Fourth presents the elements that were to burst upon the Soviet scene in his next symphony, but without the Fifth’s tidier, simpler form, emotional unity, and morally uplifting finale to act as a buffer between the composer and the Composer’s Union. The enormous first movement alone, lasting nearly a half-an-hour in performance, offers both delicately spectral and crudely overblown waltzes, lyrical recitatives of intense beauty, parodies of ceremonial marches and polkas, learned counterpoint, violently dissonant climaxes, gentle solos, and brass riding the percussion like the Czar’s galloping army carving down a field of peaceful protestors without mercy. This is Shostakovich come into his own full, focused symphonic power for the first time, and reveling in it.

To complaints of sectionalism, both in the first and final movements, Boreyko’s reply might well be, “Your point?” He doesn’t downplay any of it. Instead, he uses its often dissociative blocks of content to deliberately create juxtapositions that shock, moments of quiet melancholy followed by instrumental screams or taunts. It’s as if he were shouting (with Shostakovich) at the audience to pay closer attention, to consider each panel in the triptych of brutality, mockery, and sullenness that he’s placed upon display. When the time is right, nothing is held back, and this becomes among the most uninhibited of available Fourths. At other moments, Boreyko reminds me occasionally of Jansons (Avie 2096) in the silken beauty he coaxes from the Stuttgart strings. But where Jansons makes that sound an end in itself, this conductor uses it to better conjure those points of relative emotional stability that Shostakovich repeatedly creates, and quickly destroys.

If I have a criticism, it is that the Scherzo is too deadpan. The coarse sarcasm of the winds and brass are taken straight, and the dissonances in the subsequent string fugue are slightly downplayed. The conductor builds an impressive climax to the movement, but he clearly views it as an emotional intermission between two lengthy, harrowing events. While sympathetic to the need to interject some ray of hope into the proceedings, I don’t find that this treatment works especially well. In the coda to the third movement, certainly; and Boreyko makes something powerful out of the side glance Shostakovich takes there at Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony. But the Scherzo requires something darker and more incisive, in my opinion.

The rest of the album is given over to a short three-movement orchestral suite drawn from the composer’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. It is described on the jewel box cover as the world premiere recording of the original version, but nowhere inside is this discussed; and it’s the same suite present on Deutsche Grammophon 650702, issued last year. I find these three tiny excerpts tell us far less about the work than the lengthier conductor-arranged suites of Conlon and Runnicles. Still, as filler goes, they make light-hearted listening. Boreyko makes more of the score’s spikiness than Thomas Sanderling, and the Stuttgart RSO runs rings around the Russian PO.

Despite my expressed reservations, Boreyko’s Fourth moves in among my favorites. There it joins Kondrashin/Moscow PO, Rozhdestvensky/Bolshoi Theater Orchestra, and Sinaisky/BBC PO, all currently out of print. I find it slightly superior to Gergiev/Kirov Orchestra (Philips 470 842), where momentum trumps detail, but these are matters of personal taste. Both treatments are in excellent sound, and either will do for the modern Shostakovich collector looking for a first-rate performance of this fascinating work.

-- Barry Brenesal, FANFARE [11/2007]

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Shostakovich: Symphony No 4 / Boreyko, Southwest German Rso
SWR Feb 2007
CD
~~$20.99~~ $10.49

Schmidt: Symphony No. 4; The Book with Seven Seals

SOMM Recordings

$32.99 Apr 19, 2024

Franz Schmidt 150 (1874-1939)

SOMM Recordings honors Franz Schmidt, one of the great symphonic composers of the 20th century, on the 150th anniversary of his birth with this double-disc set featuring two of his masterworks. Revered in his day in his native Austria as the nation’s leading composer and an elite teacher, cellist, and pianist, his name will not be known to many. This is due, at least in part, to a perceived association with the Third Reich (against which there is ample evidence). This first release on CD of two premiere recordings, meticulously produced and restored by Lani Spahr, showcases Schmidt’s unique harmonic language, exceptional contrapuntal skill, and mastery of form, qualities which prompted Hans Pfitzner to call Schmidt’s Symphony No. 4 “nearer perfection than Bruckner, more honest than Richard Strauss and more original than Reger”.

Born in Pressburg (Bratislava) in 1874, Schmidt’s teachers (piano) included his mother (herself a student of Liszt), Rudolf Mader, Ludwig Burger and Theodor Leschetizky; (cello) Karl Udel and Ferdinand Hellmesberger; and (theory) Felicián Moczik and Robert Fuchs. He was, for a time, principal cellist in the Vienna Philharmonic under Mahler. While his symphonic output is clearly in the structural mold of Schubert, Brahms, and Bruckner, his harmonic language, while showing influences of Strauss, Mahler, and early Schoenberg, is clearly his own.

A near fatal heart attack in the years following the success of his Fourth Symphony prompted the composer to put his efforts into a major religious work. His setting of eight chapters of the last book of the New Testament in Martin Luther’s German became The Book with Seven Seals (From the Revelation of St. John the Divine), not through-composed but constructed of clearly defined sections in the great 19th-century oratorio tradition.

The success of this summum opus and his stature in Austria drew the attention of the Nazis, who commissioned Schmidt to write a cantata on partisan texts (which he abandoned, only for it to be completed by a student and nevertheless performed under Schmidt’s name). With the fading of this unfortunate association a growing number of prominent conductors (the Järvis, Welser-Möst, Luisi, Bychkov) have begun to revive performances of his music in our time. Lani Spahr’s previous SOMM releases include the lauded four-volume sets Vaughan Williams Live (ARIADNE 5016, 5018-20) and Elgar Remastered (SOMMCD 261-4), as well as Elgar from America, Volume 3 (Ariadne 5015-2), which garnered a Gramophone Editor’s Choice for “superb audio restorations [bringing] performances fully to life”.

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Schmidt: Symphony No. 4; The Book with Seven Seals
SOMM Recordings Apr 2024
CD
$32.99

Schumann: Manfred Overture & Symphony No. 4 - Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 / Furtwangler

Audite Musikproduktion

$20.99 Jan 05, 2018

This outstanding new release is Volume 12 in the Lucerne Festival edition produced by Audite. In cooperation with Audite, Lucerne Festival presents outstanding concert recordings of artists who have shaped the festival throughout its history. The aim of this edition is to rediscover treasures- most of which have not been previously released- from the first six decades of the festival, which was founded in 1938 with a special gala concert conducted by Arturo Toscanini. These recordings have been made available by the archives of SRF Swiss Radio and Television. This edition represents a sonic history of the festival. This installment is a sensational archive discovery including two of Wilhelm Furtwangler’s favorites: a live recording of the Manfred Overture (1953), presumed lost until recently and now released for the very first time, alongside Beethoven’s Eroica and Schumann’s Fourth Symphonies, remastered for the first time using original tapes.

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Schumann: Manfred Overture & Symphony No. 4 - Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 / Furtwangler
Audite Musikproduktion Jan 2018
CD
$20.99

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 4 / Jansons, Oslo Philharmonic
Chandos May 1985
CD
$21.99

Symphonies, Op. 4 Nos- 4-6 & Pandore (Excerpts)

CPO

$18.99 Jul 17, 2026

Franz Ignaz Beck was a "Mannheim pupil" from the very beginning. The son of the court oboist Franz Aloys Beck, he was taught by other court musicians after his father's early death before studying in Venice with Baldassare Galuppi and ultimately making his way via Naples to France. He was twenty-three when three of his symphonies won acclaim in Paris; yet he was soon drawn onward-to Marseille and then to Bordeaux, where, until 1798 (for more than thirty-five years), he served as Maître de Musique, overseeing operas and concerts as well as the performance of both his own works and those of others. The six symphonies Op. 4 date from his early years on the Garonne and are now presented complete. They represent Beck's final contributions to the genre in which he undertook bold yet successful experiments-stormy and urgent, filled with striking turns that electrified audiences and explain why he was sometimes hailed as the "Berlioz of the eighteenth century." The music from the melodrama Pandora, composed some twenty years later, forms an illuminating counterpoint.

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Symphonies, Op. 4 Nos- 4-6 & Pandore (Excerpts)
CPO Jul 2026
CD
$18.99

Mix & Match

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 4 / Alsop, Sao Paulo Symphony [blu-ray Audio]

Naxos AudioVisual

Blu-Ray

$16.99 Oct 29, 2013

This is an audio-only (i.e., with no video content) Blu-ray disc playable only on Blu-ray players.

It is also available on standard CD

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PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 4 (revised version); op. 112. The Prodigal Son, op. 46 • Marin Alsop, cond; São Paulo SO • NAXOS 0038 (Blu-ray Audio: 78:18)

Of Prokofiev’s seven symphonies, the Fourth has the most unassuming demeanor. Less sparkling than the First, less violent than the acidic Second and Third, less monumental than the Fifth and Sixth, and less magical than the nostalgic Seventh, its lack of distinctive character has kept it (especially in its baggier revised version) on the edge of the repertoire. Still, despite its relatively anodyne character, it has its fair share of charm, and its virtues are brought to the fore in this graceful performance, the second installment in Alsop’s symphony cycle.

Granted, at first, the performance seems slightly distracted. But within a minute or two, it comes into focus, and from then on, Alsop shows consistent sensitivity to the score’s harmonic flavor (the more mournful harmonies are especially well conveyed), its lyrical pull (especially in the more regretful moments—try the melancholy of the second movement), and its rhythmic stride. Alsop never tries to push the score into a grandeur it doesn’t possess—this is a fairly laid-back performance. But while it’s low in pressure, it’s never inattentive. She has a good sense of balance, so the passages with superimposed ideas (especially in the Finale) have enviable transparency. Details carry well, too (listen, for instance, to the marcato chatter on the bass lines at the beginning of the Finale). And while São Paulo is not quite a super-virtuoso ensemble, its members (especially the busy solo winds) play deftly. If the Symphony still sometimes seems to meander or sag (especially in the second movement and the Finale), the fault is really with the composer, not the performers.

Just as Prokofiev fashioned his Third from his opera The Fiery Angel, so he filched most of the musical material of the Fourth from his ballet The Prodigal Son. Putting the Symphony and its source material together on a single disc will seem either revelatory or redundant, depending on whether you are more interested getting insight into Prokofiev’s compositional methods or getting some musical variety. In any case, the original ballet is as pale as the Symphony (and formally a lot looser): You’ve rarely heard a less violent robbery scene than the seventh movement here, or, for that matter, a more anemic seductress than the one Prokofiev introduces in the third. Still, it too has its beauties (or, most of the time, the same beauties), and the interpretive grace that serves the Symphony so well has the same effect here. The sound is excellent, with plenty of timbral clarity (timpani have exceptional presence); the surround speakers on the 5.1 tracks offer an appropriate warmth to the total aural experience. Recommended.

FANFARE: Peter J. Rabinowitz

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Prokofiev: Symphony No. 4 / Alsop, Sao Paulo Symphony [blu-ray Audio]
Naxos AudioVisual Oct 2013
Blu-Ray
$16.99