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The Europadisc Review

Bruckner - Symphony no.4

Pablo Heras-Casado, Anima Eterna Brugge

£13.75

Heavy brass? Lush strings? Vast ranks of woodwind? Interminably slow speeds, overused tremolos and overpowering unisons giving way deafening climaxes? No wonder the music of Anton Bruckner - whose 200th birthday fell last week - is off-putting to many music lovers. Even the more popular Bruckner symphonies, like No.4 in E flat major (the 'Romantic'), have their detractors. Yet there are other ways, which don't undersell the music's majestic architecture or sonic power, but at the same time reveal an abundance of colours and - most notable of all - an underlying delicacy which can confound the ... read more

Bruckner - Symphony no.4

Pablo Heras-Casado, Anima Eterna Brugge

It's this route that is pursued by Pablo Heras-Casado in a new recording of the Fourth Symphony for Harmonia Mundi at the helm of the period-instrument Anima Eterna Brugge. Heras-Casado uses the 1878-80 version of the score edited by Leopold Nowak, an edition favoured by many prominent Brucknerians (not for him the raw imperfections of the first version of 1874, or the recently rehabilitated refinements of the third version of 1888). The period approach has been taken before in this work, notably by Philippe Herreweghe and his Orchestre des Champs-Élysées some 20 years ago, but Anima Eterna - familiar from many period-instrument recordings of 19th- and early 20th-century repertoire under their founder, Jos Van Immerseel - are eminently suited to taking up the challenge.

There's a real thrill at the outset when the first horn (playing, naturally, a 19th-century Viennese instrument) gives a slight edge to the first note of the main subject. This is, after all, an evocation of the middle ages, the age of Romance alluded to in Bruckner's title for the work, and the period instruments everywhere strengthen that association. Heras-Casado's tempi are sure-footed, allowing the music to flow while preserving the symphonic architecture. And he emphasises the work's lyricism, aided by climaxes in which the narrow-bore brass (including valve- rather than slide-trombones and a smaller than usual tuba) never dominate but rather add lustre to the orchestral palette. The strings use vibrato sparingly, but have a lovely silken sheen which imparts an unexpected poetry to the Brucknerian soundworld, as do the sensitively characterful woodwind (no doublings here apart from an extra horn).

The pacing of the second movement (marked Andante quasi Allegretto) is well-nigh perfect, and the cellos' opening melody has an open and honest feel to it before the woodwind swing in to take it over. Rarely have the nature associations of this music sounded so convincing, while the hymn-like passages for the strings take on a very spiritual glow. Heras-Casado's steady pulse ensures that the famous 'Bruckner pauses' are well-integrated into the overarching momentum - pauses for breath, but never intrusive or disruptive. The wind solos (particularly flute and horn) have a delightfully bucolic quality.

In the Scherzo, the hunting calls of trumpet and brass are edgy and tightly rhythmic without taking on that over-homogenised character that colours so many modern-instrument recordings of Bruckner. Yet it is the magically translucent Trio, with its wonderfully pellucid flutes, that proves to be the heart of this performance. Bruckner thought of this section as evoking a hurdy-gurdy being played during midday meal in a forest, and here it sounds like a woodland idyll, the Ländler echoes clear but transformed by the arboreal setting.

There's no lack of power in the Finale, with a gritty determination from the outset (Heras-Casado eschews the contested cymbal clash at the climax of the introduction), and the two-plus-three rhythms are as powerful as ever. The inner workings of the orchestra emerge with astonishing clarity, while the rich combined strings’ response to the brass chorale version of the 2+3 motif has a combination of grit and nobility that is unique in this listener's experience. The performance is crowned by a patient but never dragging account of the astonishing coda, the carpet of string sound fibrous rather than deep-pile, and much the better for it!

With splendidly wide-ranging dynamics captured in the ideally warm acoustic of the Concertgebouw Brugge, this is a recording of the 'Romantic' that uncovers new colours while interpretatively rivalling the very best. Heras-Casado may be a latecomer to Bruckner, but having already conducted all of the symphonies in concert, he brings many insights to this music, in partnership with Anima Eterna's expert players. This is a marvellous contribution to Bruckner Year, urgently recommended!

The Spin Doctor Europadisc's Weekly Column

Works in Focus: Gustav Holst’s ‘Egdon Heath’ 17th September 2024

17th September 2024

Holst regarded it as his masterpiece, and so did his friend Vaughan Williams. Yet ever since its premiere in February 1928 Egdon Heath has stood in the shadow of two works Holst composed more than a decade previously, the St Paul’s Suite (1912–13) and The Planets (1914–16). Though it lacks the immediate tuneful appeal of those two works, this short tone-poem (under 15 minutes in duration) has in common with some of the more mystical passages of The Planets an atmosphere of detachment, coupled with passages reminiscent of the sombre yet noble tread of the trombones’ theme in ‘Saturn’.

Egdon Heath bears the subtitle ‘Homage to Thomas Hardy’, and its title refers to the fictional heathland described so memorably in the opening chapter of Hardy’s 1878 novel The Return of the Native. Holst prefaced the score with a quotation from the novel:

‘A place perfectly... read more

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