Bruckner: Symphony No. 4

Chronique

The Symphony No. 4 in E flat major, with its Beethovenian opening and four relatively clearly structured movements, ranks as probably Bruckner's most popular. Yet, the original 1874 version heard here is comparatively rare; it was not performed in full until 1975, and recordings remain sparse. Compared with the more usual later versions, it features a Scherzo that Bruckner later discarded completely, and the finale was heavily reworked. It mostly lacks the big emotional payoffs that led Bruckner to be called out for bows after each movement at the 1880 premiere of a revised version, but it is compelling in its own right, and conductor François-Xavier Roth, leading the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, catches its slightly mysterious quality. Sample the Scherzo, dubbed the "Alphorn Scherzo," for its opening horn call. The movement, however, develops into a somewhat nervous dialogue between the horns and the orchestra, never settling into the hunting-horn color of the later Scherzo versions. This is the second in an ongoing series of Bruckner symphonies from Roth and the Gürzenich-Orchester, which delivers top-notch playing in the transparent textures favored naturally enough by Roth; he is better known as a historical-instrument specialist. Roth is emerging as one of the hot conductors of the day, and here, with a rather deliberate, detailed reading of the Fourth, he penetrates the work's creative origins.

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