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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

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

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

SYMPHONY NOS.4 AND 5

DUX

$21.99 Jun 25, 2013

Krzysztof Penderecki is one of the most famous and prominent living Polish composers. Symphonies have a special place in his legacy, but until now have never been recorded in a series under his artistic direction. In celebration of his 80th birthday, DUX presents the best performances of his works with the Sinfonia luventus. His great musical authority influences the young musicians' energetic and fresh sound.

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SYMPHONY NOS.4 AND 5
DUX Jun 2013
CD
$21.99

Mendelssohn: Symphonies Nos 3 & 4
Sony Masterworks Apr 1995
CD
$11.98

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

Nielsen: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4 / Gilbert, New York Philharmonic

Dacapo Classical

SACD

$8.49 ~~$16.99~~ Save 50% Sep 09, 2014

REVIEW:

These are strong, exciting performances of symphonies that demand the sort of bold muscularity in their execution that these artists offer. In Alan Gilbert’s hands the First Symphony sounds extremely confident and wholly mature. It starts with a bang and the tension in the first movement never lets up. The playing of the New York Philharmonic throughout is fresh and unaffected, full of spirit and drive. Even the Andante flows purposefully forward, and contrasts nicely with the Allegro comodo that does duty for a scherzo–with its harmonic kinks so personal to Nielsen. The finale has the same “pedal to the metal” drive as the opening, bringing the performance to a rousing conclusion.

The performance of the “Inextinguishable” Fourth Symphony also features some really impressive energy and power. In the first movement the brass play with a precision and clarity that few other versions can match, and in the finale the dueling timpani compete with real bravura. The slow movement here reminds me of Shostakovich in its bleak intensity, and my only quibble with Gilbert’s interpretation concerns the symphony’s coda where, like most of his colleagues, Gilbert broadens the pace in the closing bars when Nielsen clearly wants to drive the music home in tempo. Gilbert does pull it off: with an orchestra that has the weight and strength of the New York Philharmonic the effect is convincing, but Gibson (on Chandos) remains unmatched here.

Dacapo’s engineering, as with the previous release in this series, is natural and very present. The woodwinds feel just slightly recessed in more fully scored sections, but I can attest that the music really does sound like this in actual performance with a large orchestra, and certainly nothing gets lost. More importantly, the engineers have captured the impression of a live performance, caught on the wing, and the audience is mercifully quiet. This is a very impressive release.

– David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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Nielsen: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4 / Gilbert, New York Philharmonic
Dacapo Classical Sep 2014
SACD
~~$16.99~~ $8.49

BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 4, "Romantic"
Amadis Jan 1900
CD
$3.99

Mahler: Symphony No 4 / Davis, Blasi, Bavarian Radio So

RCA

$17.99 Jan 11, 2010

"I enjoyed this performance enormously. Davis's Mahler is perhaps too restless, too blatantly 'conducted' for some tastes, but his occasionally heavy-handed manipulations of tempo are at least symptomatic of a desire to communicate a personal vision of and affection for Mahler's score. Both playing and recording are of exceptional standard, even if the lack of ironic edge to the sound lends the music-making a somewhat old fashioned air (strikingly at odds with RCA's strident, pop-inspired packaging). Davis's scherzo is warm and characterful in a rather cumbersome Sort of way, but his slow movement is a marvel -elevated in feeling and blessedly free of the intrusive inflexions which mar an otherwise refreshing account of the opening movement. No more affecting account has appeared for a decade and only Maazel's Vienna Philharmonic produce such glorious string tone. After this, the finale disappoints just a little. The 'operatic' soloist does not really point her words with sufficient poignancy -nor does she seem willing or able to sing quietly in her upper register - and Sir Cohn again insists on playing up the composer's expressive hesitations, adding one or two of his own. This may not be wholly idiomatic Mahler and yet, like so many recent discs from this source, it has abundant humanity and an extraordinary lack of artifice. The sympathetic acoustic of the Herkulessaal, well caught, is great asset.

-- Gramophone [7/1996]

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Mahler: Symphony No 4 / Davis, Blasi, Bavarian Radio So
RCA Jan 2010
CD
$17.99

Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5 / Bohm, Staatskapelle Dresden
Profil Feb 2012
CD
$24.99

Sibelius: Symphony No. 4; The Wood-Nymph; Valse Triste / Rouvali, Gothenburg SO

Alpha

$20.99 Jan 26, 2024

The Fourth is Sibelius's most difficult symphony. For some, it is his masterpiece. When the symphony was premiered on 3 April 1911 in Helsinki, one critic compared it to Barkbröd - tree bark eaten by the Finns in times of famine! It is fittingly a Finn, conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali, who explores this symphony that lays bare our emotions. With his Göteborg Symphony Orchestra, he continues his cycle of the complete Sibelius symphonies, with the addition of the famous Valse Triste and the symphonic poem inspired by Swedish folklore called The Wood Nymph.

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Sibelius: Symphony No. 4; The Wood-Nymph; Valse Triste / Rouvali, Gothenburg SO
Alpha Jan 2024
CD
$20.99

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

3752590.az_PROKOFIEV_Symphony_4.html

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

SYMPHONIES NOS. 3 & 4
RCO LIVE HOLLAND Oct 2009
SACD
$25.99

SHOSTAKOVICH: SYMPHONIES 4 5 & 6

DECCA

$27.96 Sep 06, 2024

Klaus Makela / Oslo Philharmonic - "Shostakovich: Symphonies 4, 5 & 6" - Verve Label Group; Decca; Classical - "Whatever they are giving to those string players in Oslo, they should try and make it more widely available, because orchestras all over the world would kill for a string sound like the Oslo Philharmonic managed in this performance of Shostakovich's Symphony No.5. It was both the foundation stone and the life blood of perhaps the finest performance of this piece I have heard." - Seen and Heard International

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SHOSTAKOVICH: SYMPHONIES 4 5 & 6
DECCA Sep 2024
CD
$27.96

Brahms: Violin Concerto; Symphony No. 4

GLAUX RECORDS

$21.99 Oct 02, 2026

This recording explores Brahms' masterpieces through the lens of historical performance practice, restoring lost expressive technical traditions such as rubato, portamento and tempo flexibility. Performed on period instruments by the Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht led by specialist Johannes Leertouwer, the album reveals a sound world of striking contrasts, dramatic freedom and orchestral transparency going far beyond modern conventions.

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Brahms: Violin Concerto; Symphony No. 4
GLAUX RECORDS Oct 2026
CD
$21.99

BRAHMS: Symphony No. 4 / STRAUSS, R.: Tod und Verklarung (Al
Music and Arts Programs of America Jan 1994
CD
$18.99

Beethoven, L. Van: Symphony No. 4 / Piano Concerto No. 4
Corona Classic Collection May 1997
CD
$10.99

Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 / Hindoyan, RLPO

ONYX CLASSICS

$20.49 Feb 23, 2024

This recording of Bruckner's 4th Symphony, lead by Domingo Hindoyan, was taken from live performances in the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. The excitement and drama of the concerts is superbly captured on this album. The symphony was completed in 1874 and underwent substantial revisions (including a new scherzo) in 1878 and 1880. The title 'Romantic' was applied after the composer added an informal programme for the pleasure of his friends.

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Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 / Hindoyan, RLPO
ONYX CLASSICS Feb 2024
CD
$20.49

Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 - The 3 versions / Hruša, Bamberger Symphoniker

Accentus Music

$45.99 Oct 08, 2021

Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony occupies a special position in Anton Bruckner's symphonic cycle. It heralds the cycle of his "mature" symphonies and with it the composer addressed his audience directly and wanted to be understood by them. He succeeded in this - today the “Romantic” is one of Bruckner's most popular symphonies. Still, he revised it time and again and today there are three versions of it. With the Bamberg Symphony, which can draw on many years of Bruckner interpretation, Jakub Hrusa has now recorded all versions of the Fourth Symphony. For a conductor, it is a unique opportunity to be able to record all versions of a symphony. In addition, as Hrusa says, the project enables the interested audience to form their own opinion of the quality and tailoring of the respective version. In this way, listeners can decide for themselves whether the composer was right in his doubts, and whether it makes any sense at all to “pit” one version against the other.

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Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 - The 3 versions / Hruša, Bamberger Symphoniker
Accentus Music Oct 2021
CD
$45.99

Schubert: Symphony No. 4, "Tragic" - Britten: Serenade for t

ICA Classics

$20.99 ~~$26.99~~ Save 20% Mar 26, 2013

Sir John Barbirolli was one of the most versatile conductors of his generation, associated with composers and works of every era. These historic recordings, never before released, present works he previously had not recorded, - like the Britten Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings - or were under-recorded - like Schubert's Symphony No. 4.

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Schubert: Symphony No. 4, "Tragic" - Britten: Serenade for t
ICA Classics Mar 2013
CD
~~$26.99~~ $20.99

Jan Van Gilse: Symphony No. 4 / Porcelijn, Netherlands Symphony Orchestra

CPO

$18.99 Oct 30, 2012

GILSE Symphony No. 4 in A. Funeral Music on the Death of Uilenspiegel. Concert Overture in c • David Porcelijn, cond; Netherlands SO • CPO 777689 (62:33)

CPO here continues apace with its survey of Jan van Gilse’s symphonies. Details of the composer’s life and descriptions of his music can be found in reviews of his first three symphonies in 32:2 and 36:2. The Fourth Symphony in A Major occupied Gilse from 1910 to 1915, and appears to be his last fully completed symphony; only a fragment of a Fifth exists, dating from 1922, and since the composer lived for another 22 years after that, it has to be assumed that it wasn’t death that prevented him from completing it. The Concert Overture in C Minor has received a previous recording by Jac van Steen conducting the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra on an NM CD. It was reviewed in 31:5.

If you acquired one or both of David Porcelijn’s CPO recordings of Gilse’s first three symphonies, you’ll know what to expect of the Fourth, and there’s really not a lot to add. This is well-made music in high romantic style. Commenting on the First Symphony in 32:2, David H. North pegged it as Dvo?ák’s No. 4-1/3. Gilse has advanced considerably beyond Dvo?ák in his Fourth Symphony, but considering its date of composition, it’s still a decade or so behind its time. The most pervasive influence on the score, even more so than on Gilse’s Third Symphony, is Richard Strauss. The music is shot through with much of the same orchestral busyness—the flashes, splashes, and dashes of luminous colors—and the long-arching passages of melodic and harmonic nostalgia familiar from Strauss’s tone poems. If Gilse’s First Symphony was Dvo?ák’s No. 4-1/3, his Fourth Symphony is Strauss’s Don Juanenspiegel.

The Strauss connection is literary as well as musical. In 1941, during the German occupation of Holland, Gilse composed his Funeral Music on the Death of Uilenspiegel , the flip side, if you will, of Strauss’s Till . This, for Gilse, was how things ended for the legendary merry prankster. The music now anticipates the Strauss of Metamorphosen of four years later. If this and previous reviews have not taken Gilse very seriously, his Funeral Music is a score that commands serious attention and perhaps a re-evaluation of his work as a whole. The piece actually was extracted from a section of Gilse’s opera Thijl and then expanded to stand as an independent orchestral work. The Concert Overture of 1900 is Gilse’s first attempt at a piece for orchestra and it, like the First Symphony, contains echoes of Dvo?ák.

Of the three CPO discs released so far in this series, I find myself most impressed by this one. Performance and recording standards remain very high, and this is music anyone who enjoys beautifully crafted and magnificently scored orchestral music of the type and style described will derive much pleasure from. Strongly recommended.

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

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Jan Van Gilse: Symphony No. 4 / Porcelijn, Netherlands Symphony Orchestra
CPO Oct 2012
CD
$18.99

Mahler: Symphony No. 4 (Fassung Erwin Stein)

CAvi-music

$9.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 50% Sep 09, 2016

This release is Erwin Stein's chamber arrangement of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 4. In 1921, Arnold Schoenberg organized a series of private concerts, performed by small ensembles. Schoenberg and Stein combined their ingenuity and created "sophisticated versions" of important orchestral works. These arrangements were usually for a few woodwinds, a string quintet, percussion and piano. Stein also added a harmonium, which was quite rare at the time but the organ adds a unique timbre to this arrangement.

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Mahler: Symphony No. 4 (Fassung Erwin Stein)
CAvi-music Sep 2016
CD
~~$19.99~~ $9.99

Classic Library - Mahler: Symphony No 4 / Levine, Et Al

Sony Masterworks

$11.98 Apr 20, 2004

MAHLER Symphony No. 4 • James Levine, cond; Judith Blegen (sop); Chicago SO • RCA 59413 (57:58)

Gustav Mahler’s symphonies can work with so many different approaches (unlike the symphonies of most composers) that to pick any one recording of any of the symphonies and call it a “classic” is inviting argument and trouble, yet this specific recording of this particular symphony certainly qualifies in my book. Made in 1976, it has withstood not only the challenges of virtually every recording that came after it but has superceded most of its predecessors.

It took me several decades to realize that James Levine took his inspiration for this performance from the very odd recording of this symphony by Willem Mengelberg and the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Mengelberg slows down certain passages, especially in the first movement, so much that the motor rhythm practically stops, and this has been heavily criticized over the years, but he also imbued the music with an almost demonic intensity that took it away from the placid overview of the symphony as “a child’s view of heaven” and placed it into another realm. Levine borrowed the intense aspects of Mengelberg’s vision, but played the symphony in tempos much closer to those prescribed by Mahler, with the result being this classic of the phonograph.

Judith Blegen, though a fine and very musical soprano, does not have the finest voice for this music (that honor goes to Kathleen Battle, in her CBS recording with Lorin Maazel), yet she is quite good, and the overall impact of this recording is such that all subsequent interpretations are compared to it. That, in itself, qualifies this recording as Hall of Fame material.

FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

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Classic Library - Mahler: Symphony No 4 / Levine, Et Al
Sony Masterworks Apr 2004
CD
$11.98

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 - Leshnoff: Double Concerto / Honeck, Pittsburgh Symphony
Reference Recordings May 2020
CD
$21.99

Lokshin: Symphony No. 4, "Sinfonia Stretta" / Three Scenes F
BIS Sep 2001
CD
$21.99