David Dalle
Thursday August 8th, 2024 with David Dalle
Bruckner's 4th symphony. New Lemon Bucket Orkestra.

This week we continue my Bruckner symphonic cycle with his 4th symphony, the first Bruckner symphony I heard. Bruckner composed it in 1874, but he replaced the original third movement with a new scherzo in 1880 and made some major changes to the final movement. He made some minor revisions after that, but, unlike the tortured revision history of his 3rd symphony, Bruckner was basically confident and satisfied with the 1880 version and virtually every recording and performance is of this version. This symphony shows his mature style. The 1st movement opens with a hushed awe with a tremolando in the strings, and the horns stating the gorgeous first theme. The movement goes through several transformations with the theme building up to numerous, enormous climaxes in a very vague sonata form. The second movement is restrained funeral march mostly in c minor, but ending with a statuesque, extended climax in C major. The scherzo is a tremendous explosion of brass with dotted rhythms. But it is the finale which is key to this work--the first of Bruckner's symphonies where the dramatic weight is firmly in finale. It begins with an ostinato in the strings, with searching horns once again, and an incessant rhythm. There is so much tension and latent power and it builds inexorably to a massive climax, which piles up on yet an even bigger one. This is music striving for something, for transcendence. In the coda, it achieves this, peeling away the veil of existence and coming face to face with the underlying truth of the universe. When I first heard this symphony, I realized this was a something I had not heard in other 19th century symphonies. The symphonies of Schuman, Brahms, Mendelssohn just seemed so dull in contrast. I've been listening to many different recordings of this work in the past several weeks, mostly German and Austrian conductors. I've decided on an incredible recording by Austrian Karl Bohm from 1973 with the Vienna Philharmonic.