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After their acclaimed recording of the complete Beethoven symphonies in a new musical guise, a highly-regarded cycle of Richard Strauss's tone poems, the complete Mahler symphonies and a number of other musical projects with which they attracted widespread attention, David Zinman and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich now devote themselves to the symphonies of Franz Schubert. We began with 2 volumes – one containing Symphonies 1&2, and the second containing the 7th Symphony, and this is now followed by the brand new recording of Symphonies 3 & 4, released on 2nd July 2012.
Schubert: Symphony No. 3 in D, D.200
I. Adagio maestoso - Allegro con brio
II. Allegretto
III. Menuetto. Vivace - Trio
IV. Presto vivace
Schubert: Symphony No. 4 in C Minor, D.417
I. Adagio molto - Allegro vivace
II. Andante
III. Menuetto. Allegro vivace
IV. Allegro
18th August 2012
****
“Zinman brings such a musicianly personality to everything he touches: phrasing and articulation are completely natural, without a trace of the overemphatic leanness of period instrument performance, but equally avoiding the lugubriousness of 20th century tradition...he captures the wit and lilt of the Third Symphony, in a way that makes it sound like a young cousin of Haydn’s ultra-civilised London symphonies.”
November 2012
“Zinman and his expert band give predictably athletic, tightly disciplined performances of two contrasting early Schubert Symphonies...With sparing string vibrato, crisp, no-nonsense tempi and valveless trumpets and horns, the performances have a period feel.”
March 2013
“Zinman presents these two very different symphonies engagingly. There’s sensitivity to their flowing lines, a welcome lack of affectation in Symphony 3 and an intelligent clarification of the ambivalence of Symphony 4. It’s just a pity he hasn’t quite managed Abbado’s capability of creating really thrilling finales.”
12th August 2012
“Listening to these sprightly performances under Zinman — 76 years old, but hardly veteran-sounding — one has to concur with Dvorak’s astonishment that the young Schubert could express himself with such “deep pathos”.”
15th August 2012
***
“There's certainly a lightness and litheness to the way that he and the orchestra launch into the opening movement of the D major Third, though the textures are still fairly dense, without any of the transparency that period instruments would bring to this music. The performance of the Fourth, in C minor, goes for broke and ratchets up the tragic intensity as much as it can.”
14th October 2012
****
“The Fourth Symphony quickly sheds the gloom of its opening Adagio, and, though Zinman is too smooth an operator to capture its breakneck audacity, it’s a handsome, rewarding performance.”
Click on any of the works listed above for alternative recordings.
I. Adagio maestoso - Allegro con brio
