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Bruckner: Symphony No.4 in E-flat Major, WAB 104 (Edition Haas)

10/8/2021, 4 Tracks, 1:09:44

Gramophone Editor's Choice

Featuring

  • Christian Thielemann
  • Wiener Philharmoniker
  • Anton Bruckner

Did you know?

1/7

Composer's Artistic Vision

Bruckner defined Romanticism as 'religious and mysterious,' identifying it with Wagner's Lohengrin, and insisted it should remain 'free from all that is impure.'

Source: Booklet

Compositional Technique

Bruckner radically revised his Fourth Symphony, reproaching himself for 'unplayable & over-difficult violin figures' and an instrumentation that was 'too overladen & too restless in places,' as well as being 'contrapuntally overblown.'

Source: Booklet

Critical Reception

The Fourth Symphony was popularly known as the 'Forest Symphony' or 'Symphony of Nature' due to listeners' imaginative associations with German Romanticism.

Source: Booklet

Composition History

Bruckner's Fourth Symphony, known as the 'Romantic,' was composed in 1874, but he continued to rewrite and revise it over the next fifteen years.

Source: Booklet

Interpretation

Conductor Christian Thielemann advises against defining Bruckner's orchestra by its 'fissures and cracks and angularities,' instead suggesting it should sound like a 'large organ with lots of stops.'

Source: Booklet

Composer's Artistic Vision

Bruckner himself provided programmatic explanations for parts of his Fourth Symphony, describing the first movement as a horn summoning the day and the second as a song, prayer, and serenade.

Source: Booklet

Performer Biography

The Fourth Symphony was the first Bruckner symphony Christian Thielemann conducted, but he admitted he 'failed to pull it off' in his early twenties, finding it harder than he imagined.

Source: Booklet

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