BRUCKNER. Symphony No. 4 Romantic. István Kertész

Transcription

1 Eloq uence BRUCKNER Symphony No. 4 Romantic István Kertész

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3 ANTON BRUCKNER ( ) Symphony No. 4 in E flat major Romantic 1 I Bewegt, nicht zu schnell II Andante quasi allegretto III Scherzo (Bewegt) Trio (Nicht zu schnell) IV Finale (Bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell) London Symphony Orchestra István Kertész Total timing: 61 22

4 Today, Anton Bruckner, the son of a village schoolmaster, is recognized as one of the most important (albeit late-blooming) symphonists of the nineteenth century. During his lifetime, however, he was the subject of incomprehension and ridicule that is, when critics and musicians paid him and his music any attention at all. Even in modern times, his music has sometimes been dismissed as too longwinded or uninteresting. He composed a total of eleven symphonies. (Two of these are early works without a number. The last of these, the mighty Ninth, is incomplete, but nevertheless is strangely satisfying in its three-movement torso.) To put matters into perspective, before his work achieved international recognition, Bruckner had completed eight of his eleven symphonies: the Seventh Symphony was his breakthrough. In his native Austria, however, he received acclaim for his Fourth Symphony, which bears the nickname Romantic. Today it remains his most popular symphony, challenged only by the Seventh and by the unfinished Ninth. Nevertheless, the Fourth Symphony was hardly an overnight success. Beginning it just days after completing his Third Symphony, Bruckner composed the work s initial version during most of He dedicated it to Karl von Stremayr, the Austrian Minister of Education, who had assisted Bruckner in obtaining a teaching post at the University of Vienna. After a trial rehearsal in 1875, the symphony was neither performed nor published (the verdict was that all but the first movement was idiotic ), and Bruckner revised it in 1878, and again in In this version, the complete symphony received its premiere on 20 February 1881 in Vienna, with Hans Richter conducting. (Bruckner, never the most sophisticated of men, displayed his pleasure, following a rehearsal, by handing Richter a coin and enjoining him to buy himself a glass of beer with it. Richter kept the coin, and attached it to his watch-chain.) The dreaded critic Eduard Hanslick, who later almost made a career of tormenting poor Bruckner, wrote on this occasion, On account of the respectable and sympathetic personality of the composer, we are very happy at the success of a work which we fail to understand. Additional revisions followed in 1881, 1886 and It was the 1887 version, again premiered by the Vienna Philharmonic under Richter, that established the Fourth Symphony as a fully viable and successful work. (Note that this was three years after the Seventh Symphony was received with such acclaim in Leipzig. Also, note that Bruckner already was 63 years old when the revised Fourth received its successful premiere

5 early in 1888, and that he would be dead in less than a decade.) Even so, the score was revised one more time, in Thus, there are seven different versions of this one symphony. On this recording, István Kertész, like many conductors, performs the 1881 version in an edition by Robert Haas. The 1886 version also is performed and recorded with some frequency. To add to the confusion, Gustav Mahler (who at one time attended Bruckner s harmony classes at the University of Vienna) later prepared his own cut and re-orchestrated version of this score. It often has been suggested that Bruckner would have completed his Ninth Symphony had he not been bogged down with revisions of his earlier symphonies. The Fourth is by no means unique, in this sense. Of his mature symphonies, only the Sixth was not subjected to Bruckner s own revisions. If Bruckner continued revising this symphony until 1888, then why is the final revision not necessarily regarded as the definitive one? To answer this question, one has to take into account Bruckner s reputed self-doubt (although this may have been exaggerated by others), and also his understandable desire for his music to be performed and published. Furthermore, hands other than Bruckner s played various roles in the revisions of the Fourth Symphony. For example, some of Bruckner s well-intentioned but probably misguided pupils also got into the act. Suffice it to say that there has been much controversy, even during recent years, about what Bruckner s final thoughts were, related to this symphony. The Fourth is Bruckner s only symphony to which he gave a nickname. It is important not to misinterpret Romantic in this case, as having anything to do with eros. None of Bruckner s music is romantic in that sense. (He never married, but throughout his life he developed crushes on the opposite sex, and a repeated theme of these crushes, by all accounts blameless, is that their objects were usually considerably younger than he.) Instead, Bruckner, a very devout Catholic, appears to have been thinking about what might be called chivalric romance. In letters to friends and associates, he offered various clues as to what he might have envisioned. For example, in the first movement, the opening horn call, magically appearing against a setting of string tremolos, announces the arrival of a new day, and then life goes on : one of the composer s associates alluded to knights mounted on proud horses who are enveloped by the magic of nature. The same movement s second subject is apparently derived

6 from one of the calls of Parus major, commonly known as the Great Tit. The second movement depicts song, prayer, serenade, and the third, a hunting scene, with, in the Trio, a break for lunch and rustic dancing. In the symphony s 1878 version, Bruckner referred to the fourth movement as a Volksfest ( people s festival ) but he discarded this designation in the 1880 version, which is also quite different musically. There is little justification for regarding the Fourth as a program symphony. Nevertheless, one is reminded of Beethoven s Sixth Symphony, the Pastoral, as well as of Beethoven s injunction that it was more an expression of feeling than tone-painting. István Kertész, born in 1929, was trained as a conductor, composer and violinist in his native Budapest. He and his immediate family stood their ground during the German invasion of Hungary Kertész was Jewish and the Soviet takeover. Ultimately, however, he left his homeland in 1957, shortly after the Hungarian Revolution had been put down by Soviet forces. Appointments in Augsburg and Cologne were followed by his being named Principal Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, where he succeeded Pierre Monteux. He served in that role between 1965 and He was only 43 when he drowned while swimming in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel. He was known as a Mozart specialist, and he also recorded the complete symphonies of Schubert and Dvořák for Decca. He programmed Bruckner s Romantic Symphony several times during his tenure with the London Symphony Orchestra. This recording, which dates from October 1965, dates from early in that appointment. István Kertész Raymond Tuttle PHOTO: DECCA/ELFRIEDE HANAK

7 BRUCKNER: Symphony No BRAHMS: Symphonies Nos. 1-4; Serenades Nos. 1 & 2; Haydn Variations (4CD) DVOŘAK: Symphony No. 9; Serenade for wind instruments DVOŘAK: Requiem. ROSSINI: Stabat Mater (2CD) DVOŘAK: Overtures & Tone Poems (2CD) KODÁLY: Choral works. BARTÓK: Cantata profana (2CD) ISTVÁN KERTÉSZ on DECCA ELOQUENCE KODÁLY: The Peacock; Peacock Variations; Hary Janos: suite; Dances of Galanta KODÁLY: Hary Janos. BARTÓK: Duke Bluebeard's Castle (2CD) MOZART: Requiem; Masonic Music MOZART: Symphonies Nos. 25, 29, 35 Haffner MOZART: Symphonies Nos. 33, 39, MOZART: Symphony No. 36 Linz ; Eine kleine Nachtmusik; March in C; Overtures MOZART OPERA FESTIVAL RESPIGHI: Pines of Rome; Fountains of Rome; The Birds SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY Recording producer: Ray Minshull Recording engineer: Kenneth Wilkinson Recording location: Kingsway Hall, London, UK, October 1965 Eloquence series manager: Cyrus Meher-Homji Art direction: Chilu Booklet editor: Bruce Raggatt

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