Brahms: Symphony No. 4

In ‘Opening Doors’, their exploration of the limits of what a chamber orchestra is traditionally expected to perform, Thomas Dausgaard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra have already made a case for playing Schumann with smaller forces than usual (BIS-SACD-1519). The results clearly pleased the reviewer who wrote that the team ‘with this wonderful recording catapults into the top of the list of exceptional Schumann interpreters, and also proves itself a very promising proponent of a successful reinterpretation of the Romantic orchestral repertoire’ (klassik.com). Dausgaard’s vision was also commended in International Record Review where the performances were deemed to ‘have an insight and authority to rank with the finest’, while the reviewer in The Sunday Times remarked that ‘the playing throughout is first-rate, with often dazzling, thrilling faster movements, but also some beautifully shaped, tender slower music, and a real feeling for the emotional extremes that are at the heart of Schumann’s art.’ The ongoing ‘Opening Doors’ series will ultimately include a complete Schumann Symphony cycle, but on the present disc Dausgaard and his orchestra have elected to take on one of the absolute mainstays of the Romantic repertoire for symphony orchestra: Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 ‘From the New World’, here coupled with the composer’s Sixth Symphony. On the evidence of the previous disc it is fair to expect some cobwebs to be blown away – in the same Hybrid SACD Surround Sound that was so roundly praised last time around.

Anton Dvořák

Symphony No. 6 in D major, Op. 60, B. 112
1. I. Allegro non tanto
2. II. Adagio
3. III. Scherzo: Presto
4. IV. Finale: Allegro con spirito

Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, B. 178, “From the New World”
5. I. Adagio – Allegro molto
6. II. Largo
7. III. Molto vivace
8. IV. Allegro con fuoco