Search - Anton Bruckner, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra :: Bruckner: Symphony No 4, "Romantic", WAB104

One of the top efforts on this symphony

Tina Morris | Rockville, MD USA | 03/14/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bruckner's symphony # 4, the so-called "Romantic" is probably his most popular one and hence one of the most recorded. Ample room for comparison. However, when I came across this recording, the combination of Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Bruckner did not seem like an obvious one at all. Harnoncourt's forte clearly is early music, baroque. He is known to put a lot of knowledge and effort into the historically correct interpretation and rendition of period music. He applies the same thoroughness to understanding Bruckner in his most "wagnerian" period, when he wrote symphonies #3 and 4. With the wonderful Concertgebouw Orchestra as a willing and very able vehicle, the result is stunning and very satisfying. When I think of Bruckner's 4th, the dominant and very memorbale themes carried by the wind instruments come immediately to mind. Harnoncourt does a wonderful job here, finding the right balance between subtle and forceful, and he gets the pace just perfectly. That goes for the whole piece. In some of his other works I have issues with his pace, but here it is just wonderful. A great recording."

Harnoncourt's Fine Interpretation of Bruckner's 4th Symphony

John Kwok | New York, NY USA | 12/29/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Once more Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra work some musical magic with this spellbinding recording of Bruckner's 4th Symphony. While it won't replace other elegant interpretations I've heard from the likes of Bohm and Jochum, this is unquestionably one of the finest contemporary accounts yet recorded. Harnoncourt leads the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra at a brisk pace, and yet still extracts from them, a vibrant, warm performance. Harnoncourt shows he is as comfortable conducting Bruckner as he is with Bach, though his interpretation isn't nearly as radical as his Brahms symphony cycle with the Berlin Philharmonic. Of course the sound quality is absolutely superb."

Amazing performance!

offeck | New York, NY -- United States of America | 02/25/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The first movement is great. I've only heard the second movement done better by Celibidache on EMI. The third movement is really quite good. And the fourt movement, holy crap, it'll knock your socks off -- the horn articulation is amazing, and it's overall very powerful."