New release of the Day - a Schubert stunner!

[jayne lee wilson]

SCHUBERT SYMPHONY NO.7 d.759. 4-movement version compl. Samale/Cohrs (2015).
Concentus Musicus Wien/Stefan Gottfried. Aparte 24/96. Qobuz Studio Stream.

Utterly stunning Finished-Unfinished, with light, wide-open water-colourful textures, singing string-and-wind lines of doomed poignant innocence, the baleful brassy climaxes penetratingly sharp. Which emblazoning is at times relentless, yet lends an inescapable sense of overwhelming tragic destiny to the work; the 4-movement 7th (legendarily 8th - will I ever get used to this pedantic renumbering...?) here played in the most fierily dramatic and tightly structured performance I’ve yet heard - and, at least within the almost-40 minutes it took to navigate its cloud-capped palaces and abysmal depths…(Doré’s visions of Dante’s Inferno came repeatedly and forcibly to mind) utterly convincing as a complete, intensely tragic symphonic work.

What a record; what a game-changer!

The first post-Harnoncourt recording from the Concentus, in sound of riveting, sharp-cut immediacy and visceral dynamic impact. It couldn’t be a finer, more aptly exploratory tribute - but also a new beginning, opening up all sorts of possible new adventures…. might we yet have some early Bruckner from them? On present evidence, Stefan Gottfried should be a sure and worthy leader into that far-flung kingdom….

[Richard Barrett]

Yes, that recording is superb, I was listening to it yesterday evening and this morning.

[DublinJimbo]

How does this version compare with Mario Venzago's completion? He also uses music from Rosamunde as far as I remember.

[jayne lee wilson]

How does this version compare with Mario Venzago's completion? He also uses music from Rosamunde as far as I remember.

Venzago introduces further Rosamunde material to create a second trio, and more controversially brings in a quotation of the symphony's opening on double-basses just before the very end of the finale. His very detailed commentary actual says "Schubert would not have done this"..(!), and I'm not sure I find it terribly convincing. But what strikes the listener most is the far less overtly tragic character of Venzago's interpretation with the Basel CO, more flowing, with swifter tempi (very quick first movement, again carefully justified in his notes) and more generalised, blended colours of modern instruments. The sound of this recording, the interpretative approach and the extra material Venzago introduces makes for a far more emotionally ambiguous experience - more complex if you like, but less compelling after you've heard the new Concentus one; it almost feels like an unfair comparison, not like-with-like, such is the power and intensity of the Gottfried.

I find Venzago a fascinating listen (I sometimes wish he hadn't quoted the opening though - my jury's still out - he even suggests that a listener can edit it out, should she have the technology! Which I don't. It should have been tracked separately), but after hearing Gottfried and the Concentus I won't be going back to it for a while.

If you felt intrigued but perhaps short-changed by the Mackerras/Newbould use of the B minor entr'acte as the finale, too brief and simplistic in feel, both Gottfried and Venzago make more extensive use of Rosamunde ballet music in the finale (I think just a matter of repeats with Gottfried, but I'l have to listen again), making it a far more convincing, better-developed symphonic conclusion. Their finales both take 11'+, to the 7'+ of the Mackerras, and it makes for a significantly different musical experience. (A shame though, that the notes don't go into greater detail about this. The Naxos/Falletta notes mention two ballet scenes, allegro moderato and andantino, used in that earlier Newbould/Venzago realisation, which I'll get around to hearing soon).

If you are committing to purchase rather than streaming, I think you know what I'd recommend! And where my heart now lies...

Perhaps I should just get used to "Symphony No.7 in B Minor d. 759"; and leave "Symphony No.8 "Unfinished" in my musical past... right now, I can't imagine hearing just those first two movements again...

[DublinJimbo]

Thanks Jayne for your thoughtful response. I hadn't been all that keen on Venzago's solution, and perhaps this was because of the subtleties you hint at: that the overall effect of his 'completion' isn't truly symphonic. I cannot imagine Schubert resorting to Venzago's bitty structure for his finale, for example.

On first hearing, I was immediately taken aback by the measured tempo adopted by Gottfried for the first movement (14:06 as compared with 11:57 from Venzago). I've always felt that most recordings of the 'unfinished' tend towards tempi which are too similar for the two movements, and welcomed the briskness of Venzago's approach. I value your opinion very much, and will treat myself tomorrow to a full audition of the Gottfried recording via Qobuz streaming, and will most probably purchase the high-res download.

As a side note, it's fascinating to consider these alternative finishings of the Unfinished in the context of Berio's approach to Schubert's '10th' in Rendering, which I absolutely adore.

[Richard Barrett]

Thanks Jayne for your thoughtful response. I hadn't been all that keen on Venzago's solution, and perhaps this was because of the subtleties you hint at: that the overall effect of his 'completion' isn't truly symphonic. I cannot imagine Schubert resorting to Venzago's bitty structure for his finale, for example.

On first hearing, I was immediately taken aback by the measured tempo adopted by Gottfried for the first movement (14:06 as compared with 11:57 from Venzago). I've always felt that most recordings of the 'unfinished' tend towards tempi which are too similar for the two movements, and welcomed the briskness of Venzago's approach. I value your opinion very much, and will treat myself tomorrow to a full audition of the Gottfried recording via Qobuz streaming, and will most probably purchase the high-res download.

As a side note, it's fascinating to consider these alternative finishings of the Unfinished in the context of Berio's approach to Schubert's '10th' in Rendering, which I absolutely adore.

I haven't heard Venzago's recording and I have a lot of time for his approach to Bruckner, but this new recording is so convincing to me that I feel much more like spending time with it than with comparing it to others. I hadn't heard a four-movement version of this symphony before, and my hopes for it were somewhat overshadowed by memories of the disjointed anticlimactic mess of a finale that the same scholars were involved in constructing for Bruckner's Ninth, but this is a very different proposition whose approach of minimal intervention produces something that sounds (to me at any rate) like a complete Schubert symphony rather than a reconstruction. (Programming it alongside the Schubert/Berio piece would be a very interesting idea!) It just goes to show that each of these "unfinished" works should be assessed on its own virtues.

[Richard Tarleton]

Struggling to keep up here -

the disjointed anticlimactic mess of a finale that the same scholars were involved in constructing for Bruckner's Ninth

- who are the scholars in question? Is this the foursome responsible for the completion on the Rattle/BPO recording (Samale, Mazzuca, Phillips and Gunnar-Cohrs, it says here ) Richard? (not knowing anything about the version currently under discussion beyond what Jayne has told us)

[Richard Barrett]

who are the scholars in question? Is this the foursome responsible for the completion on the Rattle/BPO recording

It was two of the Bruckner Gang of Four. To recap on the work: Schubert completed a basic draft of the third and shortest movement, and orchestrated its opening, and Cohrs & Samale filled in the gaps. The fourth movement is the first entr'acte from Schubert's Rosamunde incidental music, without any changes as far as I know. (This movement is suspected to have been intended for the symphony, being in the same key, using the same instrumentation and having some motivic connections.)

[Richard Tarleton]

Thank you Richard, and for the comment on the B9 4th movement which I find hugely reassuring.

I'm sure I've heard a completion of the Schubert involving the Rosamunde music before, but a long time ago.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I'm sure I've heard a completion of the Schubert involving the Rosamunde music before, but a long time ago.

The Brian Newbould edition (used in recordings by Marriner and Mackerras) of the "Unfinished finished" uses the Rosamund Entr'acte.

But - accordin' to WIKI - the very first British performance of the work in 1867 included the Entr'acte as a Finale; I'm presuming you didn't mean that "long ago"?

[Richard Barrett]

the very first British performance of the work in 1967

1867 I think.

The thing with using the Entr'Acte is that it's all by Schubert, it's in B minor and it sounds suspiciously like the finale to a dark-hued Romantic symphony. Rocket science this is not!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

1867 I think.

Oops!

The thing with using the Entr'Acte is that it's all by Schubert, it's in B minor and it sounds suspiciously like the finale to a dark-hued Romantic symphony. Rocket science this is not!

[Richard Tarleton]

The Brian Newbould edition (used in recordings by Marriner and Mackerras) of the "Unfinished finished" uses the Rosamund Entr'acte.

But - accordin' to WIKI - the very first British performance of the work in 1867 included the Entr'acte as a Finale; I'm presuming you didn't mean that "long ago"?

Thanks ferney (for the info), and no - it would have taken one of my great great grandfathers (e.g. the 1818-1889 one) - to have been at that

[Barbirollians]

The thing with the Unfinished Symphony is that is how Schubert chose to leave it. If he had wanted to tack on bits of Rosamunde surely he would have done so ?

[Bryn]

Schubert left many works incomplete. He also died young. Go figure.