Description
Pentatone: Mahler Symphony No. 4 - Czech Philharmonic, Semyon Bychkov, Chen Reiss - Audio CD
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Product Details:
- Product Type: Audio CD (Digipak)
- Label: Pentatone
- Catalog Number: PTC 5186 972
- Composer: Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
- Conductor: Semyon Bychkov
- Soprano: Chen Reiss (Movement IV)
- Orchestra: Czech Philharmonic
- Genre: Classical / Symphonic
- Release: 2022
- Publisher: Pentatone Music B.V.
- Barcode (UPC): 827949097263
- Condition: Factory Sealed
Product Features
- Format: Single CD (square digipak)
- Total Playing Time: 56:49
- Audio: PCM / DDD (DiDiD)
- Made in Germany
- Licensed: Czech Philharmonic under exclusive license to Pentatone Music B.V.
Overview
Mahler's Fourth Symphony is the odd one out in the cycle. Where the others expand outward - longer, louder, more complex - the Fourth quietly contracts. It is the shortest of the nine completed symphonies, the most chamber-like in texture, and the only one that ends not in triumph or tragedy but in a child's vision of heaven. It has always been the hardest to do well precisely because it asks for restraint, clarity, and a kind of luminous simplicity that most Mahler conductors are not built for.
Semyon Bychkov has been the Czech Philharmonic's Chief Conductor since 2018, and this 2022 Pentatone release catches a partnership in mature form. The orchestra plays with the kind of transparent, singing string tone that this symphony needs - the Czech Philharmonic's particular warmth in the inner voices is an asset throughout, especially in the long third movement Adagio. Bychkov takes his time without losing direction, and the tempo relationships between movements feel naturally considered rather than imposed.
Chen Reiss brings a clear, unaffected soprano to the final movement "Das himmlische Leben" - Mahler's setting of the folk poem that originally inspired the entire symphony. The movement needs a voice that sounds genuinely childlike without being coy, and Reiss navigates that narrow requirement with ease.
At 56 minutes and 49 seconds, this is among the more spacious recent readings of the Fourth. The PCM recording from 2022, made in Germany, captures the orchestra with excellent depth and transparency across the full dynamic range.
Interesting Facts
- Mahler composed the Fourth Symphony between 1899 and 1900; its premiere in Munich in 1901 was one of the most hostile receptions of his career - the audience expected another large-scale Mahler symphony and was bewildered by its apparent simplicity.
- The fourth movement text, "Das himmlische Leben" (The Heavenly Life), is a folk poem from the collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn; Mahler had originally composed the song in 1892, eight years before the symphony, and then built the entire four-movement work around it.
- Semyon Bychkov (born Leningrad, 1952) emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1975 and built his career in the West; he has served as Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris and the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne before becoming Chief Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic.
- The Czech Philharmonic, founded in 1896, gave the world premiere of Dvořák's Cello Concerto and has a particularly distinguished history in the Central European symphonic repertoire; Mahler himself conducted the orchestra in Prague on several occasions.
- Chen Reiss (born Israel) is a lyric soprano who has performed at the Vienna State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, and the Salzburg Festival; her light, focused tone makes her particularly suited to Mahler's more intimate vocal writing.
- The scordatura violin solo in the second movement - where the concertmaster tunes the instrument a tone higher to produce a nasal, ghostly timbre - is one of the most unusual orchestral effects in the symphonic repertoire; Mahler specified it to evoke the medieval image of Death playing the fiddle.
Track Listing
Symphony No. 4 in G Major
- I. Bedächtig, nicht eilen - 17:10
- II. In gemächlicher Bewegung, ohne Hast - 9:23
- III. Ruhevoll, poco adagio - 21:23
- IV. Sehr behaglich* - 8:51
*Chen Reiss, soprano
Total playing time: 56:49
Label & Publisher
Pentatone Music B.V. © & ℗ 2022 Czech Philharmonic / Pentatone Music B.V. Made in Germany.
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