Bruckner's Symphony No. 4

The Concertgebouw Orchestra is performing the Fourth Symphony, one of Bruckner’s most popular works, under the direction of Jaap van Zweden. Bruckner himself called his Fourth the ‘Romantic’ – and by that, he mainly meant ‘romantic’ in the sense of medieval knights and castles. The composer sketched the following outline, for instance, for the first movement: ‘Medieval city – Daybreak – Morning calls sound from the city towers – the gates open – On proud horses the knights burst out into the open… – forest murmurs’. Of the third movement, he wrote, ‘hunt’ and ‘a barrel organ plays during the midday meal in the forest’. What about the stark Finale? ‘I don’t recall what I was thinking about there,’ the composer admitted. In any event, this is highly evocative music that lets each listener imagine their own story.