Schubert, Franz - Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5 - Rene Jacobs

Award-winning conductor René Jacobs and the B'Rock Orchestra present the third part of their Schubert cycle on the PENTATONE label, featuring recordings of the composer's Fourth and Fifth Symphonies. As with the second and third symphonies, Jacobs approaches these works as a symphonic pair, revealing contrasting sides of Schubert's personality and compositional approach. The Fourth is Schubert's first symphony in a minor key, illustrating a completely new harmonic worldview that Dvorák linked to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. In contrast, the Fifth sounds Mozartian and cheerful, even though that lightness is only apparent, as is so often the case in Schubert's music. In the composer's words: "A mind that is too light usually carries a heart that is too heavy!" Looking beneath the surface, the contradictions between the "tragic" fourth and the "lighter" fifth become even more apparent. The musicians of the B'Rock Orchestra perform these works on period instruments; transparent, but full of fire.