Budapest Festival Orchestra, Ivan Fischer - Beethoven: Symphonies No. 4, 6 (2014)

Two fundamentally different symphonies: both works explore feelings from an entirely different point of view. The Fourth is about human feelings and moods: obsession, love (what a melody in the second movement!), happiness, fun, wit, (Beethoven’s most humorous finale!). The Sixth is about feelings that nature awakens in us: calmness, meditation, thankfulness. It has been an especially creative process to work on these masterpieces. We discovered that the Fourth Symphony sounds better with natural horns and trumpets. In the Pastorale we used a different seating arrangement, with the winds scattered among the strings, so that each soloist was surrounded by musicians playing the flow of Beethoven’s nature music. After the storm, when we hear the first tentative horn call with a bagpipe-like accompaniment, suggesting signals across the mountains, we found it appropriate to answer with a solo violin, which is gradually joined by the whole orchestra.
Iván Fischer

Tracklist:

1. Symphony no. 4 in B flat major op. 60 - Adagio-Allegro vivace - 11:50
2. Symphony no. 4 in B flat major op. 60 – Adagio - 08:52
3. Symphony no. 4 in B flat major op. 60 - Allegro vivace - 05:49
4. Symphony no. 4 in B flat major op. 60 - Allegro ma non troppo - 06:47
5. Symphony no 6 in F major op. 68 ‘Pastoral’ - Allegro ma non troppo - 11:50
6. Symphony no 6 in F major op. 68 ‘Pastoral’ - Andante molto mosso Szene am Bach - 13:37
7. Symphony no 6 in F major op. 68 ‘Pastoral’ - Allegro Lustiges Zusammensein der Landleute - 05:02
8. Symphony no 6 in F major op. 68 ‘Pastoral’ - Allegro Donner. Sturm - 03:44
9. Symphony no 6 in F major op. 68 ‘Pastoral’ – Allegretto - 10:57

Budapest Festival Orchestra
Ivan Fischer - conductor

Label: Channel Classics
SKU 30710
Release Date: January 10, 2014
Recording location: The Palacer of Arts, Budapest, Hungary, 2010
Original Recording Format: DSD64
Recording Type & Bit Rate: DSD64