Schostakowitsch: Symphony 10 (Mariss Jansons) (CD, Br-Klassik)

On the border between high and late romanticism, where the style of the time was to change and finally dissolve, Anton Bruckner once again conjured up the originality of the romantic mindset with his fourth symphony. He himself gave his work the title Romantic, which is still popular today; this epithet can be found in many of his communications. This romantic conjures up an ideal world in bright, unbroken colors, it looks back on an intact past. The consistently relaxed, positive mood of the symphony appears all the more astonishing when one looks at the intricate history of its creation: Bruckner rejected the first version from 1874, a year of professional defeats, after several failed plans for the premiere; in relentless self-criticism he called her overloaded and too restless. In 1878 he began a profound revision, in the course of which, among other things, a completely new third movement, the Jagd-Scherzo, was created. The other sentences are also fundamentally revised, in some cases shortened and condensed; Until 1880, Bruckner intervened in the final movement, which, within the symphonic work structure, increasingly assumed the function of a crowning finale that resolved final contradictions. In this version from 1878/1880, which is also the basis of the present recording, the fourth symphony had its world premiere on February 20, 1881 in Vienna, performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under the direction of Hans Richter, who was loyal to Wagner. The performance turned out to be a real triumph and brought about a decisive turning point in the reception of Bruckner’s oeuvre: The Romantic was the work of his breakthrough, after his symphonic oeuvre had met with rejection to date. The success of the fourth has remained true to this day, and alongside the seventh it is undisputedly one of Bruckner’s most frequently performed works. Their unbroken popularity underlines the timeless understanding that fills Bruckner’s work: that deeply human longing for the romantic, which to this day has left no one untouched.