Bruckner Symphony No 4
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Anton Bruckner
Label: Decca
Magazine Review Date: 10/1991
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 63
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 430 099-2DH
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Symphony No. 4, 'Romantic' |
Anton Bruckner, Composer
Anton Bruckner, Composer Christoph von Dohnányi, Conductor Cleveland Orchestra |
Composer or Director: Anton Bruckner
Label: Red Seal
Magazine Review Date: 10/1991
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 66
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: RD60784
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Symphony No. 4, 'Romantic' |
Anton Bruckner, Composer
Anton Bruckner, Composer Günter Wand, Conductor North German Radio Symphony Orchestra |
Composer or Director: Anton Bruckner
Label: Decca
Magazine Review Date: 10/1991
Media Format: Cassette
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 430 099-4DH
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Symphony No. 4, 'Romantic' |
Anton Bruckner, Composer
Anton Bruckner, Composer Christoph von Dohnányi, Conductor Cleveland Orchestra |
Author: Richard Osborne
Alongside Wand's German players and the impressive RCA recordings, the Cleveland Orchestra sounds leaner and less robust in the big tuttis; they are also treated to leaner, closer, and drier sound by the Decca engineers. At the same time, Dohnanyi's reading seems more studied, less spontaneous, than Wand's with rather obviously applied tempo changes in the first movement and a certain amount of quiet musing in the second. All of which tends to confirm how difficult it is to get great as opposed to good Bruckner performances out of American orchestras. Bruno Walter achieved miracles with his West Coast pick-up band, the Columbia SO, and the Chicago orchestra occasionally delivers, but despite the evident proficiency of the Cleveland (witness a sterling account of Symphony No. 3 under Szell, CBS, 10/90, and Dohnanyi's own startlingly dramatic Decca account of No. 9, 6/89) it is usually overawed by European competition.
In fact, neither of the newcomers displaces the existing front runners, two of which feature the Vienna Philharmonic in superb form and marvellous sound (Bohm on Decca and Abbado on DG). There is also that first movement, where I prefer both Klemperer's dramatic incisiveness and consistently taut lines (EMI) and Bohm's added expansiveness and glow to the middling compromises attempted by both Dohnanyi and Wand.'
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