Search - Schubert, Harnoncourt :: Symphonies 1 & 4

Early Schubert becomes heroic and deeply felt

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 03/10/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a single CD taken from Harnoncourt's complete cycle. Since it's apparently out of print, I'll limit my remarks to saying that Harnoncourt has done a remakrable thing. He has salvaged these early works, particularly the First Sym., from their reputation as immature, unformed works (just this week the NY Times reviewer, writing about a Vienna Phil. performance of the Fourth under Muti, called it "unripe Schubert"). On this CD every note comes from a confident composer with aspirations to deep feeling and heroic expression. Schubert didn't fail to duplicate Beethoven's structure; he found his own way, and it's equally valid. These are great readings, amazingly well recorded and played by the Royal Concertgebouw. Harnoncort's entire cycle is equally impressive, in case you decide to buy all eight symphonies at one go."