Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra - Symphony No. 4 - SUPER-AUDIO CD [Super Audio CD (SACD)]

Wesley Wolfe - Storage [COMPACT DISCS] date 07/10/2012

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. Details 1. Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73-I. Allegro Non Troppo 2. Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73-II. Adagio Non Troppo 3. Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73-III. Allegretto Grazioso 4. Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73-IV. Allegro Con Spirito 5. Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98-I. Allegro Non Troppo 6. Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98-II. Andnate Moderato 7. Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98-III. Allegro Giocoso 8. Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98-IV. Allegro Energico E Passionato

Anton Bruckner wrote his Symphony No. 6 over a period of two years, completing it in September 1881. And for once with this composer, the word 'completing' can be used without qualification known for his habit of reworking and revising his works, Bruckner for once seems to have been satisfied with the result of his efforts. That doesn't mean that the Sixth has enjoyed a smoother passage to the concert stage than other Bruckner symphonies, however. The only performance in Bruckner's lifetime was a partial one, of the two middle movements, and when Gustav Mahler conducted the first 'full' performance in 1899, he made a number of substantial cuts and other amendments. In fact, the true premiere of the Sixth as Bruckner wrote it had to wait until 1935, almost 40 years after the composer's death. And the work is still something of a Cinderella in the Bruckner catalogue, with far fewer outings in concert halls or on disc than for instance the Fourth or the Seventh. Bruckner called the Sixth his 'boldest' symphony - with a duration of 'only' some 55 minutes it is at any rate one of the shorter, but possibly the composer was thinking of the remarkably expansive Adagio or the ambiguous Scherzo, or of the way the so-called 'Bruckner rhythm' (different combinations of a duplet and a triplet) pervades the work. The present is the first in a Bruckner 'mini-series' from Thomas Dausgaard and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, appearing together on disc for the first time.