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SZYMANOWSKI: SYMPHONIES NOS. 2 & 4 / STABAT MATER

ALTO

$11.01 Jun 01, 2018

A natural inheritor of Scriabinesque exoticism, Szymanowski brings out the best in Scriabin's most imaginative interpreters, which is why Gergiev proves such a convincing interpreter... excellent playing from the LSO. Matsuev has his feet... firmly planted on terra firma... The gorgeous return to lushness in the second movement suggests an almost Ravelian sensibility... Matsuev and Gergiev turn the finale into Szymanowski's danse generale. (Gramophone). "Stabat Mater is beautiful and Gergiev has the full measure of it's 23 gorgeous minutes." (MusicWeb).

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SZYMANOWSKI: SYMPHONIES NOS. 2 & 4 / STABAT MATER
ALTO Jun 2018
CD
$11.01

Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 7 / Mcgegan, Philharmonia Baroque

Philharmonia Baroque Productions

$9.99 ~~$19.99~~ Save 50% Jul 15, 2015

BEETHOVEN Symphonies Nos. 4 1 and 7 2 • Nicholas McGegan, cond; Philharmonia Baroque O (period instruments) • PHILHARMONIA BAROQUE PRODUCTIONS 06 (75:10) Live: Berkeley 1 11/10-11/2012, 2 9/12-13/2009

Unlike a number of other conductors in the early music movement, Nicholas McGegan has waited a long time to commit any of the Beethoven symphonies to disc. The wait has been well worthwhile. These are now my favorite period performance versions of the Fourth and Seventh symphonies on CD. I previously had preferred the Fourth of John Eliot Gardiner. It is faster than McGegan’s in every movement, sometimes significantly so. I feel that McGegan’s tempos allow the music to breathe more and to build up more natural climaxes. Gardiner uses a larger string section, which produces a wider dynamic range than McGegan’s. But McGegan’s orchestra sounds better balanced to me, with the strings allowing for richer textures from the inner voices. Interestingly, both conductors employ the same principal flute, the excellent Janet See, whose album of Vivaldi concertos with McGegan and the PBO is well worth seeking out. In the opening movement of the Fourth, McGegan’s Adagio is like a journey through the Greek underworld, leading to an Allegro vivace that feels like the whole world springing to life. Its development section sounds very Viennese in its congeniality. The second movement resembles chamber music, similar to a Buddhist scroll painting in its play of light and shade. It is significant that McGegan’s violin section includes such period chamber music luminaries as Katherine Kyme, Elizabeth Blumenstock, and Jolianne von Einem. The third movement displays Olympian humor, while the last is very danceable, sort of Beethoven’s version of a hoedown. In both symphonies, McGegan is very generous with repeats.

One of the principal attractions of McGegan’s Seventh is timpanist Kent Reed. Over 20 years ago, I heard a splendid Seventh by the New Jersey Symphony conducted by my friend Jens Nygaard, in which the timpanist, Randall Hicks, really whaled away. The critic assigned to the concert complained that it sounded like a timpani concerto. By now, we are so accustomed to the thwack of period timpani that Reed’s performance doesn’t seem unusual. Before hearing McGegan, my favorite period Seventh was Roger Norrington’s Stuttgart account. He is more fastidious in the middle movements about Beethoven’s metronome markings, though McGegan’s tempos there feel less rushed. Norrington’s strings, modern instruments played without vibrato, make a thicker, less appealing sound than McGegan’s more gossamer section. What’s more, McGegan conducts the entire symphony with a Beechamesque twinkle in his eye that Norrington lacks. The introduction to McGegan’s first movement is fleet-footed, with beautiful wind playing. The main section features wonderful waves of sound that ebb and flow, while the coda offers splendidly braying horns. McGegan’s slow movement is measured, with a careful delineation of dynamics. Its sensation is that of a haunted, misty reverie. The third movement feels as if the different sections of the orchestra are engaged in a conversation. Its trio sounds like an ecstatic shepherd’s song. The concluding movement is a jolly, mercurial romp. McGegan’s Seventh, congenial as it is, is one you can live with very easily.

The sound engineering in both symphonies is excellent. If you are looking for these works on modern instruments, I would recommend George Szell in Cleveland for the Fourth and Karl Böhm with the Vienna Philharmonic for the Seventh, although his Berlin account is nearly as good. McGegan’s album is a marvelous blend of the wisdom of the old master conductors with the finesse of period instruments. His Beethoven is an extremely likable fellow of vast ingenuity, an artist with whose work you never are sated. There is not one unconsidered bar of music in the whole album.

FANFARE: Dave Saemann

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Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 7 / Mcgegan, Philharmonia Baroque
Philharmonia Baroque Productions Jul 2015
CD
~~$19.99~~ $9.99

Beethoven: Symphonies nos. 4 & 7 / Masur, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig

PENTATONE

SACD

$16.99 ~~$21.99~~ Save 20% Jul 19, 2005

Pentatone presents a diverse range of world-class artists, and is dedicated to premium quality productions captured in exceptional sound. The label works together with today and tomorrow’s leading artists to provide timeless recordings of core, fringe, and lesser-known repertoire, with Pentatone’s uncompromising attention to the best possible quality in artistry, design and recording technology. In this series of recordings from the 2000s, conductor Kurt Masur and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig surveyed Beethoven's symphonies and overtures.

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Beethoven: Symphonies nos. 4 & 7 / Masur, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
PENTATONE Jul 2005
SACD
~~$21.99~~ $16.99

Brahms: Symphonies No. 4, Alto Rhapsody & Schicksalslied

PHI

$15.99 ~~$20.99~~ Save 25% Apr 07, 2017

Although the symphony was the most prestigious instrumental genre of his time, Brahms avoided it for many years. In 1872, when he was already more than forty years old and was widely acknowledged for his chamber and choral music, he observed: ‘I will never write a symphony! You can’t imagine what it’s like to hear a giant treading behind you.’ The giant was of course Beethoven, at once an inspiration and a source of intimidation for composers of Brahms’s generation. Fortunately, however, he went back on his promise a few years later with his First Symphony, followed by three more composed between 1876 and 1885. The two works presented here are the Second Symphony, sometimes sombre, sometimes radiant, and the Fourth, a genuine masterpiece of the genre. This disc, recorded on period instruments under the masterly direction of Philippe Herreweghe, is released to coincide with a double anniversary: as a prelude to the Flemish conductor’s seventieth birthday, it also celebrates the twenty-fifth year of existence of one of his favourite ensembles: the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées.

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Brahms: Symphonies No. 4, Alto Rhapsody & Schicksalslied
PHI Apr 2017
CD
~~$20.99~~ $15.99

American Classics - Hadley: Symphony No 4, The Ocean, Etc

Naxos

$19.99 Jul 01, 2001

Henry Kimball Hadley (1871-1937) came from a highly musical Massachusetts family and showed considerable compositional promise early in his life (he completed his first opera at age 17). A major figure in Hadley's development was George Chadwick, with whom he studied counterpoint and composition before continuing his musical education in Vienna. Hadley's music shows an accomplished technique and, as with that of many American composers of his generation, it bears heavy European influence (though in Hadley's case, it also contains occasional traces of his home soil). The Ocean, composed between 1920 and 1921, is as atmospheric as its title suggests, displaying Hadley's skill at evocative orchestration. The musical language sounds at first to be purely impressionistic, but further along there are indications of the German post-romantic style, especially Zemlinsky. The Culprit Fay (1908) revels in the pre-impressionist sounds of Paul Dukas (La Peri comes to mind) as it relates Drake's fairy-tale poem.

It's surprising that Hadley's Symphony No. 4, composed three years later, sounds stylistically like a much earlier work, with roots firmly planted in the 19th century. The four movements act as a musical compass, describing the four regions of the globe: North portrays the frigid artic regions in terse declamations reminiscent of Richard Strauss' Macbeth; East is spiced by "oriental" modes and colors; South, the most "American"-sounding movement, captures that region's flavor with the use of ragtime melodies; and West combines adventurous "outdoors" music with Native American melodies and rhythms in a movement that not surprisingly brings to mind Dvorak's New World Symphony. This is really fine music and you can't help but wonder how it all but disappeared from modern concert programs. But if it had received anything like the wholly persuasive and committed (as well as enjoyable) performances provided by John McLaughlin Williams and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, it certainly shouldn't have. This team once again has put together an irresistibly fresh and rewarding program, and Naxos has captured it all in fine sound.
--Victor Carr Jr., ClassicsToday.com

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American Classics - Hadley: Symphony No 4, The Ocean, Etc
Naxos Jul 2001
CD
$19.99

Weinberg: Cello Music, Chamber Symphony no. 4 / Wispelway, Charlier, Feye, Les Métamorphoses

Evil Penguin

$9.49 ~~$18.99~~ Save 50% Apr 08, 2022

Pieter Wispelwey is finally back! Research on Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s music is very much ongoing, and several previously unknown works have been discovered in recent years. Perhaps most surprising of these is the Cello Concertino op. 43bis. The Fantasy for cello and orchestra op. 53 was written a few years later, during one of the darkest periods of Weinberg’s life. The Chamber Symphony no.4 is Weinberg’s final completed work. He wrote it in April-May of 1992, by which time he was housebound with the illness that would ultimately claim his life. The work is scored for string orchestra with an obbligato clarinet.

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Weinberg: Cello Music, Chamber Symphony no. 4 / Wispelway, Charlier, Feye, Les Métamorphoses
Evil Penguin Apr 2022
CD
~~$18.99~~ $9.49

Wilms: Symphonies No 1 & 4, Overture In D / Griffiths, Et Al
CPO Jul 2009
SACD
$18.99

Brian: Symphonies No 4 & 12 / Leaper, Valásková, Et Al
Naxos Jan 2007
CD
$19.99

Taneyev: The Oresteia, Symphony No 4 / Järvi, Philharmonia
Chandos Mar 1991
CD
$21.99

SCHUBERT: Symphony No. 4 / Symphony in C Major

Naxos

$19.99 Nov 13, 1994

Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 4 "Tragic" and Symphony in C major "Grand Duo" are superbly performed by the Failioni Orchestra of Budapest, under the direction of Michael Halasz. Both are part of a complete cycle of symphonies recorded for the Naxos label by this lesser known but excellent eastern European chamber orchestra. The Symphony No. 4, composed by Schubert in 1816, is performed with great warmth, passion, and dramatic gravitas. Schubert originally composed the "Grand Duo" in 1824 as a piano sonata for four hands. The Symphony in C is a mid-nineteenth century orchestration of the "Grand Duo" sonata by the great 19th century violinist Josef Joachim. Again, Halasz and the Failioni Orchestra completely and flawlessly capture the grand scale and sense of drama of this Schubert masterpiece.

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SCHUBERT: Symphony No. 4 / Symphony in C Major
Naxos Nov 1994
CD
$19.99

Still: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5, Etc / Jeter, Fort Smith Symphony
Naxos Oct 2009
CD
$19.99

Rubinstein: Symphony No. 4 "Dramatic" / Golovchin, Russian State Symphony Orchestra

Delos

$18.99 Aug 28, 2012

Anton Rubinstein’s Symphony No. 4 in D Minor, Op. 95, emerged in 1874 – ending a dry spell of roughly 20 years since his previous efforts in the genre. It came at a time when the future of the purely instrumental symphony was in doubt, reflecting the notion of Wagner and his disciples that Beethoven had exhausted the possibilities of symphonic development – and that the day of “synthetic” art (the “Gesamtkunstwerk”), with its blend of symphonic, vocal and theatrical elements, had arrived. Rubinstein did not agree, and composed his fourth symphony in an apparent effort to prove that Beethoven’s methods were still valid. This marks Delos’ second re-release of Russian Disk’s acclaimed series of Rubinstein’s orchestral music, as performed with authentic idiomatic flair by Igor Golovchin and his Russian State Symphony Orchestra.

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Rubinstein: Symphony No. 4 "Dramatic" / Golovchin, Russian State Symphony Orchestra
Delos Aug 2012
CD
$18.99

Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 & Chamber Symphony No. 2,

Zig-Zag Territoires

$20.99 Nov 19, 2013

This is Zig-Zag Territories first collaboration with the great conductor, composer and oboist Heinz Holliger and the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. This disc brings together pivotal works of two Viennese composers, works written prior to abandoning tonality and still strongly linked to what went before but already offering glimpses of what the atonal adventure would be. With this fine disc, Heinze gives a particularly moving, committed interpretation of works that are sometimes enclosed in useless carapaces.

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Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 & Chamber Symphony No. 2,
Zig-Zag Territoires Nov 2013
CD
$20.99

Beethoven: Complete Symphonies, Vol. 4 / Kim

Centaur Records

$18.99 Nov 02, 2018

This new release is the fifth volume in Centaur's set of the complete Beethoven Symphonies, transcribed for Piano by Paul Kim. Paul Kim maintains a career that aims to bridge the pathways of performance, musicology, and education. As a recitalist, piano soloist and chamber musician, he has collaborated with many of the world's leading artists, orchestras, and conductors. Critics have noted his "brightest flashes of virtuosity and clear transparent quality" (The New York Times) as well as "his musical honesty and integrity, his very recognisable strength of character and personality" (Gramophone). He has been featured in interviews, articles, and television and film documentaries in such media outlets as Newsweek, The New Yorker, International Herald Tribune, PBS, NPR, CNN, and the BBC. Dr. Kim's research and teaching areas include Beethoven, Messiaen, Wagner, symphonic literature, and twentieth-century music.

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Beethoven: Complete Symphonies, Vol. 4 / Kim
Centaur Records Nov 2018
CD
$18.99

Beethoven: Symphonies No 4 & 7 / Herreweghe, Royal Flemish Philharmonic
PENTATONE Apr 2011
SACD
$21.99

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SCHUMANN, R.: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 4 (Berlin Philharmonic,
IDIS May 2008
CD
~~$16.99~~ $8.49

SIBELIUS: SYMPHONIES NOS. 2 & 4

RUBICON

$20.17 Mar 25, 2022

Sibelius's Symphony No.2 of 1902 represents a big step forward in his development as a symphonist. It's thematic fragments are driven by harmonic tensions through which the composer takes the listener on an eventful journey. Symphony No.4 of 1907 inhabits a bleak, dark, emotionally fraught landscape. Sibelius had been diagnosed with a cancerous throat tumour and feared for his life. After a successful operation to remove it, he lived in fear of it's return. He gave up both whisky and cigars and suffered awful withdrawal symptoms. Battling with his demons and self-doubt, the result was an outpouring of honestly expressed emotions. Symphony No.4 is one of the greatest symphonies ever composed, and is expertly rendered by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Owain Arwel Hughes.

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SIBELIUS: SYMPHONIES NOS. 2 & 4
RUBICON Mar 2022
CD
$20.17

Brahms: Symphonies 2 & 4

Chandos

SACD

$21.99 Jan 02, 2026

His First Symphony famously took Brahms twenty-one years from conception to first performance - a marker of both his own highly self-critical assessment of his output, combined with the expectation of everyone around him that his symphonic output would naturally pick up where Beethoven had left off. Astonishingly, his Second Symphony was begun in June 1877 and received it's first performance just six months later, by the Vienna Philharmonic and Hans Richter. It's cheerful nature and pastoral mood are also a stark contrast to the first symphony. Following a gap of some six years, Brahms returned to the form in 1883, and composed his third and then fourth symphonies in quick succession. Begun in 1884, the Fourth Symphony was premièred by Brahms and the Meiningen court orchestra in October 1885. The work is especially notable for it's last movement, which takes the form of a passacaglia (an extremely rare occurrence) and is the only one of Brahms's symphonies to end in a minor key.

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Brahms: Symphonies 2 & 4
Chandos Jan 2026
SACD
$21.99

Mix & Match

The Royal Edition - Schumann: Symphonies 3 & 4 / Bernstein
Sony Masterworks Dec 2009
CD
$17.99

BRUCKNER: SYM NO. 4 (RECORDED LIVE AT ST. FLORIAN)

MUNCHNER PHILHARMONI

$20.49 Sep 18, 2020

The Munich Philharmonic have arguably given more performances of Anton Bruckner's music than any other orchestra. A great number of Bruckner recordings led by the many legendary conductors that have worked with the Munich Philharmonic are stored in the historical archive of the MPHIL Label including magnificent pieces with Sergiu Celibidache, Christian Thielemann, Rudolf Kempe, Gunter Wand and Oswald Kabasta. Having started in September 2017 at the Monastery of St. Florian, a setting with unique historical significance in this context, the Munich Philharmonic and Valery Gergiev have presented a most spectacular cycle of Anton Bruckner's symphonies.

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BRUCKNER: SYM NO. 4 (RECORDED LIVE AT ST. FLORIAN)
MUNCHNER PHILHARMONI Sep 2020
CD
$20.49

Pierre Monteux Edition Vol 14 - Tchaikovsky: Symphonies 4-6
RCA May 2010
CD
$24.99

Mozart, W.A.: Symphonies Nos. 4, 5 and 29
Delos Jan 1987
CD
$13.99

Genzmer, H.: Piano Concerto No. 3 / Symphony No. 4 / Prolog
Thorofon Mar 2000
CD
$24.99

Brahms, J.: Symphonies Nos. 2 and 4
Signum Classics Jan 2008
CD
$19.99

Bruckner: Symphony No "00" / Georg Tintner, Royal Scottish
Naxos Apr 2000
CD
$19.99