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Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
The Symphonies
Swedish Chamber Orchestra/Thomas Dausgaard
rec. 2006-2013, Örebro Concert Hall, Sweden
BIS BIS-2514 SACD [4 discs: 300]

About six months ago I reviewed the same artists on the same label in their collected box of Brahms symphonies. I enjoyed that set very much hence my request to audition this new set. BIS are following the same model as for the Brahms; four previously released discs recorded between 2006–2013 are brought together in a neat slimline robust box which results in a cost benefit over the original CD’s of four for the price of three. One slight difference for these Schubert performances is that the original liner notes have been assembled together into a single tri-lingual booklet. Further aspects of the two sets are repeated. Most notably the remarkably alert, musicianly and virtuosic playing of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra caught in simply gorgeous SACD multi-channel sound by the BIS recording team. My system is set up for SACD stereo (of course standard CD options are available too) and that also sounds magnificent. Across the four discs aside from the eight extant symphonies we are given thirty minutes of the Rosamunde incidental music plus the same work’s overture and the Funeral March from the opera Adrast. This results in very generously filled discs, the shortest just over the hour mark and two others close or on eighty minutes.

Over the years along with their long-term principal conductor Thomas Dausgaard, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra promoted a series of concerts and recordings with the title “opening doors” with the aim of gaining new perspectives on existing familiar repertoire. With Brahms the use of a smaller number of players and a leaner style of playing that was instantly true – whether one responded to the results or not. Of course, with the exception of Symphony No.9 ‘The Great’, Schubert was already writing on a scale where the use of orchestras of the size of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra is much less contentious. The discs present the symphonies in numerical order, so it is very simple for the listener to hear Schubert’s evolution as a symphonic composer across the eight works. In the liner’s introduction, writer Horst A. Scholz points out that after Schubert wrote his symphonies 1 – 6 in the period 1813-18 all of his teenaged attempts at transforming symphonic form foundered in the face of Beethoven’s legacy and his struggles to find his own voice in the genre. To the point where Schubert did not offer these works to prospective publishers and decades later Brahms in his role as editor of the complete Schubert edition wanted the early symphonies to remain unpublished as being of interest to academics only as pointers towards the last two works.

However the 20^th Century and the rise of the LP has seen a re-evaluation and increased appreciation of these works. As such, cycles of the symphonies have been standard fare of many of the great conductors and orchestras – small and large – for many decades. That being the case, the options for the collector are numerous before beginning to consider interpretative insights. The model for the first six is very clearly the late Classical Symphony as perfected by Haydn and Mozart and explored by Beethoven in his first two essays in the form so the scale of the ensemble and whether or not they apply HIP practices and to what degree will be central considerations. With groups such as the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and The Academy of Saint Martins in the Fields alongside the Swedish Chamber Orchestra there is clear awareness of such practices without it being a defining style as it is in sets from The Hanover Band, Anima Eterna Brugge or Les Musiciens Du Louvre. That said the HIP influence is far stronger in this Schubert set than it was in the Brahms. The Swedish strings eschew vibrato with accents are very strongly marked. To my ear the trumpets have that slight ‘blare’ that suggests original/valveless instruments although I cannot see any indication in the liner to that effect. Make no mistake, if you are a connoisseur of orchestral ensemble playing of the highest order there is much to admire and enjoy here. But the virtues of muscularity and bold dynamic shifts that I did find fascinating and challenging in Brahms actually becomes rather wearing in Schubert – especially when as for the purposes of this review the performances are listened to in close order. Dausgaard favours generally swift or at least flowing tempi which is fine but allied to rather stiff phrasing and drooping phrase-ends the result is quite severe and unsmiling. Whatever lessons the young Schubert had to learn about symphonic form he had an innate gift for song-like melody and unaffected humanity in his music-making. In Daugaard’s hands the early symphonies do not bubble or twinkle as they surely should. Take the Presto finale of Symphony No.3in D major – Dausgaard presses the vivace marking but not in a way that troubles his brilliant Swedish players but he does encourage a very heavy accent on the last beat of each four bar phrase. In the third movement Menuetto of the same symphony Schubert plays with the audience’s expectations by accenting the anacrucis into the standard 3/4 rhythm. Dausgaard again favours a repeated and heavy accent that is certainly an interesting surprise initially but grating on constant unvaried repetition. Much more so in either instance than the ‘authentic’ Minkowski and his Les Musiciens Du Louvre (who play at a very similar tempo), let alone Horst Stein in Bamberg or Neeme Jarvi with the Stockholm Sinfonietta for BIS’ earlier Schubert cycle (who are likewise very nimble albeit not as well recorded).
 
I suppose one’s response to Dausgaard’s approach will depend on how you perceive the music’s essential character. For me Dausgaard is driven rather than playful or vivacious. This can pay dividends as in the opening of the first minor key symphony No.4 in C minor ‘Tragic’. In the lamenting and overtly tragic introduction to the first movement Dausgaard creates almost theatrical tension through his use of dynamic extremes and near-harsh instrumental textures. Compared again with Stein, whose quite traditional but warmly affectionate cycle I have long enjoyed finds Stein much more relaxed in terms of tempo, accentuation and natural phrasing. For sure Dausgaard is more dynamic but Stein is more humane. Symphony No.5in B flat major is probably the best known of the early symphonies. The scoring is at its lightest too with just pairs of horns complimenting the woodwind group of 2 flutes, oboes and bassoons. The liner characterises the opening movement as “full of grace and agility”. Certainly Dausgaard achieves that at a beautifully light yet brilliant tempo but as the movement progresses I find myself feeling this to be too unrelenting with the music unable to dance or breath. After all the marking of this movement is just allegro with allegro vivace saved for the bustling finale. Perhaps surprisingly Solti’s Decca digital recording with the Vienna PO might obviously be “big band” Schubert but the conducting and playing is alert and affectionate without any sense of the ‘driven’ which is a frequently levelled criticism of Solti. Perhaps in the finale the bass lines are allowed to be robust in a way that unbalances the orchestral soundscape but even then I enjoy the exuberant vigour of the music-making.
 
Remarkably, according to the liner, the Symphony No.6 in C major ‘Little’ did not receive its public premiere until a decade after it was written at a memorial concert for the recently deceased composer in December 1828. Perhaps even more remarkably this performance was the first in public of any Schubert symphony. The liner also points to Schubert responding to the prevalent “Rossini Fever” with a work where song-like melodies and forms are more prevalent than ever. Again I have nothing but admiration for the sheer technical perfection of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra’s playing but Dausgaard’s brusque tempi and sharp-edged accents minimise the wittiness of the music. Interestingly Philippe Herreweghe conducting the modern instrument Royal Flemish Philharmonic allows his players a warmth and expressive freedom in the second movement Andante that eludes Dausgaard. That said, Dausgaard’s handling of the third movement Scherzo – presto is more successful. Yes the sharp accents point Schubert’s playful displacement of phrase lengths but crucially in this movement it does sound playful and the sheer unanimity and flair of the Swedish orchestra is a delight. I am less enamoured of the trio section where the accentuation again feels unrelenting and pedantic rather than musically convincing. The finale benefits from a more relaxed approach than Dausgaard favours elsewhere although Herreweghe’s more pointed articulation allows the main theme to dance more than is achieved here. The remainder of this disc is filled with the three Entr’actes and two Ballet Musics from the Rosamunde, Fürstin von Cypern, incidental music, D. 797. The liner note relates the abject failure of the original play which survived just two performances before sinking without trace. Die Zauberharfe Overture which has been suggested as an optional overture for the play is included on disc one of this set. Disc three contains five of the ten numbers Schubert provided totalling 31:46 of music. These constitute all the orchestral sections with the remaining five being a Romanze, three choruses and a wind sextet. Schubert wrote this music some crucial years after the early symphonies and the mood is much more closely allied to the early-Romantic style of the Unfinished Symphony. Hence no real surprise – as the liner points out – that the First Enr’acte has been used on occasion as a finale to the incomplete symphony. Dausgaard’s approach is exactly the same but the sharp contrasts and dramatic extremes suit the spirit of this music better than the essentially sunny teenaged symphonies. Interestingly – and unusually in the context of this set – Dausgaard performs the Entr’acte No.3 in an expressive almost dreamlike manner quite different from say Maurice Abravanel in Utah in his trail-blazing complete performance from 1962 who is a forthright full minute quicker than the musing Dausgaard. As a whole I found this selection from Rosamunde to significantly benefit from a more relaxed approach.
 
So to disc four – the first to be recorded in 2006 – which generously couples Schubert’s two undisputed masterpieces in symphonic form; Symphony No.8 in B minor ‘Unfinished’ and Symphony No.9 in C major ‘Great’. In the CD age this has become a popular coupling with conductors and labels – I do enjoy Giuseppe Sinopoli’s brooding and powerful version on DG with the Dresden Staatskapelle which is typically interventionist from Sinopoli but gloriously played in the ripest of Germanic orchestral traditions. Sinopoli is a full three minutes slower than Dausgaard in the opening movement of the Unfinished which comes down to an interpretation of the allegro moderato marking with Sinopoli clearly “moderato” with a three beat to a bar pulse and Dausgaard “allegro” in one. The latter certainly gives the music a nervous intensity in the accompanying quaver (eighth note) figurations and the main theme a lilting near waltz feel. But then Sinopoli achieves a wonderfully expressive and inward lyricism in the same melody at the much slower speed. Why both approaches ‘work’ is that the contrasting performance styles suit the chosen tempi. If I ultimately prefer Sinopoli it is more a question of familiarity and personal taste. Certainly as a whole, Dausgaard’s approach feels more in line with the Romantic aesthetic of these two symphonies than it did in the earlier works. However, once the technical aspect of minimal vibrato, sharp accents, widely stepped dynamics are removed, I am not sure Dausgaard is a very empathetic interpreter of these symphonies. It is as if he does not want to be too Romantic let alone sentimental. For my taste the result is too plain and severe. But that attention to the technical side of the music does bring dividends when the Swedish players keep the dotted rhythm of the main allegro first movement of The Great as sharply rhythmic as they do – not all orchestras do. Interestingly, given his preference for swift tempi, in this movement Dausgaard is not unusually fast – Leibowitz with the RPO back in the early 60’s is more driven and almost as attentive to accentuations and terraced dynamics. Leibowitz’s is a genuinely fine performance reminiscent of the Beethoven cycle he recorded with the same orchestra for Reader’s Digest and one that proves that the doors being pushed ajar by Dausgaard in 2007 had already been kicked open more than forty years earlier! Horst Stein’s more benevolent approach which worked well in the youthful works makes for a rather routine Great. Well played but all a bit measured and ‘nice’.
 
In the second movement Andante con moto Dausgaard observes the “with movement” marking well and the music flows and he certainly makes the most of the very wide/sudden dynamics contrasts, Schubert asking for pp one bar and ffz the very next. All performances make a marked contrast but few risk as big an extreme as Dausgaard or as literal a reading of the score’s indications. Listening in direct comparison with Marc Minkowski’s Les Musiciens Du Louvre performance, although speeds are similar, Minkowski feels rather wan and under energised. This is very audibly an HIP performance but not one that convinces me at least. The third movement scherzo Allegro vivace is buoyant and lively as the tempo indication suggests. I do still find that attentive application of every single marked accent wears on extended listening and you do wonder if there is a disconnect between what Schubert wrote and what he meant. Try Solti in Vienna (again) for a sunny and joyful version at a tempo slightly brighter than Dausgaard but one not hampered by endless accentuation. The finale – another Allegro vivace – is one final opportunity to admire and enjoy the collective virtuosity of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and the detailed excellence of the BIS engineering. Dausgaard maintains the momentum of the music into the lyrical second subject whereas the more traditional approach of Solti allows the tempo to relax a little – again I can be convinced by either approach when they are as well executed as here. Overall this is an exciting and powerful conclusion to the work and the cycle as a whole.
 
There is an admirable consistency across this set in terms of conception, performance and recording. However, it also raises the question whether meticulous observance of authoritative scores alone makes for compelling performances. By that measure I find this cycle to be more of a hit and miss affair. Too often, especially in the youthful works the essential joie de vivre and elegance is lost in the name of authenticity. The two mature symphonies are certainly the most effective and respond best to this style but even there a more humane approach can pay even greater dividends.

Nick Barnard


Contents

Symphony No.1 in D major, D82 (1813)
Symphony No.2 in B flat major, D125 (1814-15)
Funeral March from Adrast D137 (1819-20)
Die Zauberharfe, Overture ('Rosamunde' Overture) D 644 (1820)
Symphony No. 3 in D, D200
Symphony No. 4 in C minor, D417
Symphony No. 5 in B flat, D485
Symphony No. 6 in C major, D589 (1817-18)
Music from Rosamunde, D797 (1823)
Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D759 ‘Unfinished’
Symphony No. 9 in C, D944 ‘The Great’
rec. October 2006 (No.8) December 2007 (No.9), May 2009 (No. 5), January 2010 (No. 3), May 2010 and August 2011 (No. 4), February 2012 (No.6, Rosamunde), June 2013 (Nos.1, 2, Funeral March, Zauberharfe)