Bruckner - Symphony 4 [Harnoncourt-Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra]
Bruckner's fourth symphony, dubbed the 'Romantic', is probably his easiest Symphony to get into, a great place to start, lasting just over an hour, and takes concentrated listening, unlike say Beethoven, Bruckner's Symphonies can sound samey, it takes patience to differentiate them all.
The Austrian Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducts a live recording, you wouldn't know it, the Dutch audience are truly quiet, applause at the end has been recorded out, so no clapping, maybe there's a little extra hesitation between movements as you would expect in a live recording.
On this listen, i rather like the Horns and Brass fanfares, Bruckner loves extensive use of the Brass section, he uses blocks of sound and repetition to form his Symphonies, at the very beginning we have a swirl of murmuring strings, out of which are heard the horn calls, a great start to a Symphony, also in the scherzo third movement, a similar effect is used, the Horns quickly turn to Trumpets, and both argue at each other, the Horn / Trumpet calls keep coming back again and again, to thrilling effect, especially in forte passages, Harnoncourt's interpretation has great power, very satisfying.
Here's Harnoncourt conducting this Symphony on YouTube.
