Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 - Esa-Pekka Salonen

Anton Bruckner (Composer), Esa-Pekka Salonen (Conductor), Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
• Conductor: Esa-Pekka Salonen
• Composer: Anton Bruckner
• Audio CD (July 28, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B000009MGX
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #456,126 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Symphony No. 4 in E flat ('Romantic'), WAB 104: 1. Bewegt, nicht zu schnell

2. Symphony No. 4 in E flat ('Romantic'), WAB 104: 2. Andante quasi allegretto

3. Symphony No. 4 in E flat ('Romantic'), WAB 104: 3. Scherzo. Bewegt - Trio. Nicht zu schnell. Keinesfalls schleppend

4. Symphony No. 4 in E flat ('Romantic'), WAB 104: 4. Finale. Bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Playing, Solid Interpretation, but Under-recorded, March 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 - Esa-Pekka Salonen (Audio CD)

The LA Philharmoic and Salonen have become one of my favorite choices when looking for CD's. The playing on this disc is absolutely superb, thanks to the LAPO's world-class musicians. Salonen's interpretation is both natural and captivating. However, there are many moments which lack the power they should have and I believe this is due to the recording quality. Salonen's recording of Mahler 3 with the LAPO was far more resonant and had more presence than on this disc. Here the whole orchestra seems distant for some reason. Nevertheless, this disc is certainly worth buying simply for the quality of playing.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A superbly balanced and transparent Bruckner, with passion!, September 23, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Detroit, Michigan USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 - Esa-Pekka Salonen (Audio CD)

Salonen here gives us an etherial, tempered, yet majestic Bruckner that is refreshing and revealing. He does this magnificent and often misunderstood and underappreciated composer justice, by offering a reading that has the mystic vision, blazing revelations, and sinister roarings WITHOUT the often overdone and self-indulgent excesses that entrap many fine conductors. Although it may not topple Boehm, Karajan, or Chailly's top-ranking performances, it certainly can stand beside them as a totally committed and individual effort. This Fourth may well appeal to non-Brucknerians in that the magnificent structure and intricate lines come to the forefront, amazingly without sacrificing grandeur or power. Although not in the league of Berlin, Vienna, or the Concertgebouw, the LA Symphony plays convincingly and consistently fine to merit a whole-hearted recommendation. As a devoted Brucknerian with 5 recordings of this work in my library, I still have no regrets getting this one.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Comparative Review, July 15, 2009

By 

Karl W. Nehring (Ostrander, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 - Esa-Pekka Salonen (Audio CD)

This review compares the Salonen recording against the Tintner Naxos recording. Bear with me a moment as I start this comparison with a gripe about the cover art on the Sony CD, which features glamorous closeups of Salonen, some of which show him either trying to look angelic and profound or else trying to look like opera/pop superstar Andrea Bocelli, who at least has an excuse for posing with closed eyes (Mr. Bocelli is blind). The Naxos CD by comparison is a model of taste and functionality (it is much easier to tell at a glance what the heck you are looking at when you come across this one in the CD rack, that's for sure).

I did not purchase these two CDs at the same time. I first picked up the Salonen version, and when I listened to it the first few times, I thought it was nicely recorded, nicely played, but lacking something. It was rather boring, actually. I much preferred my old favorite Chailly/Concertgebouw recording on London.

When I finally picked up the Tintner, my first reaction was, "now, this is more like it." Tintner took the opening movement quite slowly, but he seemed to have everything thought out in such a way that the music always seemed fresh and exciting. The orchestra did not seem quite as polished as the LA Philharmonic, and the recording seemed not quite as refined, but the end result just seemed to be a better rendition of what I would suppose Bruckner's musical intentions to be.

Just for fun, I decided to do my final comparison of the two versions in a "blind" fashion. I stuck the two disks in two players and switched back and forth between them. On the piece of paper I had in front of me to write comments upon, I marked off columns for "A" and "B."

As I listened, I began to take notes. I noted that in recording A for example, the sound of the horns--in terms of both sound quality and musical phrasing--seemed much more rustic and atmospheric, while the bass in recording B seemed a bit firmer, and the overall sound quality seemed a bit more refined.

One of the fascinating puzzles growing out of this comparative process was that it was hard to decide about recording B whether the refined sound made the orchestra sound more refined, or whether it was rather the more refined sound of the orchestra that made the engineering seem more refined. Chew on that one for a while...

I also noted that the violins in recording A were spread across the stage, but in recording B they seemed relegated to the left side. I preferred the resulting sound of the old-fashioned arrangement of violins in A, which seemed to fill out the "sound picture" nicely.

Overall, recording A just seemed to offer a more vivid and more convincing musical interpretation of Bruckner. Although I thought recording B was a very good recording, I found myself more entertained and delighted by A, and it seemed to me that A presented a much more convincing Bruckner performance. Recording B was pleasant, but it wasn't quite Bruckner. It is recording A, then, that became my pick from this comparison.

Yes, I of course had realized after a minute or two of listening--not even that long, probably--that recording A had to be the Tintner recording, because of what I had heard of the two recordings before comparing them in this fashion. (I may have been blind for this comparison, but I was not deaf.) At about ten bucks less than the Sony disk, then, the Naxos is a genuine bargain, and I recommend it highly.