Schubert: Symphonies 4 & 5

Album review

Here's a strong choice for those looking for an audiophile recording of Schubert's Symphony No. 4 in C minor, D. 417, "Tragic," and Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, D. 485. The two pieces make a natural contrasting pair, and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra under violist-conductor Gordan Nikolic uses the audiophile medium to play up the contrasts. The result is pair of sharp performances from an orchestra of optimum size for these works; a full symphony overwhelms the Symphony No. 5 especially. The Symphony No. 4 is the young Schubert's first attempt to deal with the example of Beethoven, while its successor is an apotheosis of Mozart. The C minor work turns on a dime harmonically and goes in directions whose unexpectedness is hard for modern ears to grasp. Nikolic does a very good job bringing these into relief, and he and PentaTone's engineers push the work's rich brass and wind parts just to the edge of being too prominent without going over it. In the Symphony No. 5 the spotlight goes back to the strings, and if the NCO does not have the sheer grace that some have brought to this work, the hit of wit is there and the counterpoint with the Symphony No. 4 gives the proceedings a lively air. The transparency of the sound (sampled on a good conventional stereo) is remarkable; PentaTone has used Amsterdam's Yakult Hall before and is developing top-level expertise in its acoustically live environment. Booklet notes are in English, French, and German.

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