Symphonies n° 4 & n° 5

Description

Conductor René Jacobs, winner of several prizes, and the B'Rock Orchestra present the third installment of their Schubert cycle on PENTATONE with a recording of the composer's Fourth and Fifth Symphonies. Just as with the Second and Third, Jacobs approaches these works as a symphonic pair, revealing contrasting aspects of Schubert's personality and compositional approach. The Fourth is Schubert's first symphony in a minor key and presents a completely new harmonic worldview that Dvořák associated with Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. In contrast, the Fifth sounds Mozartian and cheerful, although this lightness is only an appearance, as is so often the case in Schubert's music. In the composer's words, ""a spirit too light usually harbors a heart too heavy!"" Looking more closely beneath the surface, the cross-relationships between the ""Tragic"" Fourth and the ""lighter"" Fifth become all the more evident. The musicians of the B'Rock Orchestra present these works on period instruments, transparent yet full of fire.