Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 in E major, WAB 104, is one of the composer's most popular works. It was written in 1874 and revised several times through 1888. It was dedicated to Prince Konstantin of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst. It was premiered in Vienna in 1881, conducted by Hans Richter in Vienna to great acclaim.
The symphony's nickname of Romantic was used by the composer himself. This was at the height of the Romantic movement in the arts as depicted, amongst others, in the operas Lohengrin and Siegfried of Richard Wagner.
According to Albert Speer, the symphony was performed before the fall of Berlin, in a concert on 12 April 1945. Speer chose the symphony as a signal that the Nazis were about to lose the war.
Description
The symphony has four movements. Bruckner revised the symphony multiple times and it exists in three major versions. The initial version of 1874 differs in several respects from the other two, most importantly the entirely separate scherzo movement:
Here are the tempo markings in the 1880 version:
The 1888 version edited by in the Gesamtausgabe (Band IV Teil 3) has different tempo and metronome markings:
First movement
The movement opens, like many other Bruckner symphonies, with tremolo strings. A horn call opens the first theme group:
:<score sound="1">
{ \new PianoStaff <<
\new Staff
\relative bes'
{
\set Staff.midiInstrument = #"french horn"
\set Staff.midiMinimumVolume = 0.3
\set Staff.midiMaximumVolume = 0.9
\key es \major
\clef treble
\time 2/2
\set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t
\tempo 2 = 60
R1*2 | % 3
bes1 \p _\markup{ \italic{ ausdrucksvoll} } ( | % 4
es,2... es16 | % 5
bes'1 ) | % 6
R1 | % 7
ces1 ( | % 8
es,2... es16 | % 9
bes'1 )
r1
}
\new Staff
\relative es,
{
\set Staff.midiInstrument = #"tremolo strings"
\set Staff.midiMinimumVolume = 0.2
\set Staff.midiMaximumVolume = 0.6
\key es \major
\clef bass
\time 2/2
<es bes' es g bes>1 \ppp :16 | % 2
<es bes' es g bes>1 :16 | % 3
<es bes' es g bes>1 :16 | % 4
<es bes' es g bes>1 :16 | % 5
<es bes' es g bes>1 :16 | % 6
<es bes' es g bes>1 :16 | % 7
<es bes' f' as es'>1 :16 | % 8
<es bes' f' as ces>1 :16 | % 9
<es bes' g' bes>1 :16 | % 10
<es bes' g' bes>1 :16 }
>>
}
</score>
This leads into the second theme of the first group, an insistent statement of the Bruckner rhythm:
:<score sound="1">
{ \new PianoStaff <<
\new Staff \relative es { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"piano" \key es \major \clef treble \time 2/2 \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 2 = 60
R1 \ff | % 2
es4 <g, es' g>4 \times 2/3 {
<bes bes'>4 <c c'>4 <d d'>4
}
| % 3
<es g es'>1 -> | % 4
es4 <g, es' g>4 \times 2/3 {
<b b'>4 <c c'>4 <d d'>4
}
| % 5
<c es es'>1 ->
}
\new Staff \relative es { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"piano" \key es \major \clef bass \time 2/2
<es es'>4 \ff <bes bes'>4
\times 2/3 {
<as as'>4 <g g'>4 <f f'>4
}
| % 2
<es es'>4 r4 r2 | % 3
<c' c'>4 <g g'>4 \times 2/3 {
<f f'>4 <es es'>4 <d d'>4
}
| % 4
<c c'>4 r4 r2 | % 5
R1 }
>> }
</score>
Like all Bruckner symphonies, the exposition contains three theme groups. The second group, called the "Gesangsperiode" by Bruckner, is in D major:
:<score sound="1">
{ \new PianoStaff <<
\new Staff <<
\new Voice { \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 2 = 55 \relative f {
\voiceOne \clef "treble" \key des \major \stemUp \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"piano" \time 2/2 | % 1
r4 \p _\markup{ \italic {etwas gemächlich} } f8 -. f8 -. as,2 ^~ | % 2
as4 ges'8 -. ges8 -. es4 as4 -. | % 3
r4 f8 -. f8 -. as,2 ^~ | % 4
as4 ges'8 -. ges8 -. es4 -. as4 -. | % 5
f4 -. r4 r } } % end of voiceOne
\new Voice \relative f' {
\voiceTwo \clef "treble" \key des \major \stemDown \time 2/2 | % 1
r2 r4 f4 | % 2
fes4 _( es4 ) -. ges8 _( es'8 ) es8 _( as,8 ) | % 3
as4 r4 r4 f4 | % 4
fes4 _( es4 ) ges8 _( es'8 ) es8 _( as,8 ) | % 5
as8 r8 r4 r2 } >>
\new Staff <<
\new Voice { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"piano" \relative as {
\clef "bass" \key des \major \time 2/2
r4 \p as4 ( f'4 des4 | % 2
c4 bes2 c4 | % 3
des4 ) as4 ( f'4 des4 | % 4
c4 bes2 c4 | % 5
des4 ) r4 r2 } } >>
>> }
</score>
The third theme group differs between versions; in the 1874 original it opens with a variation on the opening horn call:
:<score sound="1">
{ \new PianoStaff <<
\new Staff \relative bes { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"piano" \key bes \major \clef treble \time 2/2 \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 2 = 60
bes8 \ff :16 f8 :16 bes,8 :16 f'8 :16 bes8
:16 f8 :16 bes,8 :16 g'8 :16 | % 2
bes8 :16 f8 :16 bes,8 :16 g'8 :16 bes8 :16 c8 :16 d8 :16 c8 :16 | % 3
bes8 :16 a8 :16 g8 :16 f8 :16 es8 :16 d8 :16 c8 :16 bes8 :16 | % 4
c8 :16 d8 :16 es8 :16 f8 :16 g8 :16 a8 :16 bes8 :16 b8 :16 \!
}
\new Staff \relative bes, { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"piano" \key bes \major \clef bass \time 2/2
<bes f' bes f'>1 \ff _\markup{ \italic {marcato} } | % 2
<bes f' bes>2... <bes f' bes>16 | % 3
<bes bes' f'>2 r2 | % 4
R1 }
>> }
</score>
In the 1878 version and later it opens with a variation of the Bruckner rhythm theme from the first group:
:<score sound="1">
{ \new PianoStaff <<
\new Staff \relative bes { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"piano" \key bes \major \clef treble \time 2/2 \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 2 = 60
bes8 \ff :16 f8 :16 bes,8 :16
f'8 :16 bes8 :16 f8 :16 bes,8 :16 f'8 :16 | % 2
bes8 :16 f8 :16 bes,8 :16 f'8 :16 bes8 :16 c8 :16 d8 :16 c8 :16 | % 3
bes8 :16 a8 :16 g8 :16 f8 :16 es8 :16 d8 :16 c8 :16 bes8 :16 | % 4
c8 :16 d8 :16 es8 :16 f8 \< :16 g8 :16 a8 :16 bes8 :16 b8 :16 \!
}
\new Staff \relative bes { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"piano" \key bes \major \clef bass \time 2/2
<bes bes'>4 \ff _\markup{ \italic {marcato} } <f f'>4 \times 2/3 {
<es es'>4 <d d'>4 <c c'>4
}
| % 2
<bes bes'>2. d'4 | % 3
f2 f,2 ~ | % 4
f4 \> ~ f8 \! \p r8 r2 }
>> }
</score>
The expansive development features a brass chorale based on the opening horn call:
:<score sound="1">
\relative c' {
\new PianoStaff <<
\new Staff {
\set Staff.midiInstrument = #"brass section" \key es \major \clef treble \time 2/2 \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 2 = 50
<c e g c>1 \ff _^ |
<g' b d>2... ^^ <g b d>16 |
<c, e g c e>1 _^ |
<c e g>2... _^ <c e g>16 |
<des f bes des f>1 _^ |
<f a f'>2... ^^ <f a f'>16 |
\set doubleSlurs = ##t
<es g bes es>1 ^( ~ |
<d g bes d>1 ) |
}
\new Staff {
\set Staff.midiInstrument = #"brass section" \key es \major \clef bass \time 2/2
<c, g'>1 \ff ^^ |
<g g' b d>2... ^^ <g g' b d>16 |
<c g'>1 ^^ |
R1 |
<bes f'>1 ^^ |
<f f' c'>2... ^^ <f f' c'>16 |
<g bes'>1 ~ |
<g bes'>1 |
}
>>
}
</score>
There exists much evidence that Bruckner had a program in mind for the Fourth Symphony. In a letter to conductor Hermann Levi of 8 December 1884, Bruckner wrote: "In the first movement after a full night's sleep the day is announced by the horn, 2nd movement song, 3rd movement hunting trio, musical entertainment of the hunters in the wood." There is a similar passage in a letter from the composer to Paul Heyse of 22 December 1890: "In the first movement of the 'Romantic' Fourth Symphony the intention is to depict the horn that proclaims the day from the town hall! Then life goes on; in the Gesangsperiode [the second subject] the theme is the song of the great tit Zizipe. 2nd movement: song, prayer, serenade. 3rd: hunt and in the Trio how a barrel-organ plays during the midday meal in the forest. – a quote of that before the third climax in part 5 of the Adagio of the Fifth Symphony.
In the 1888 version, the recapitulation begins with the second theme group, skipping over the first entirely.</blockquote>
In an interview given to coincide with his performance of the work with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra at the 2024 BBC Proms, conductor Simon Rattle stated that he had found fourteen versions of the symphony. Rattle also made a cut before the finale, and composed his own four-bar transition to replace it.
Version IIB (1880)
After the lapse of almost a year (during which he composed his String Quintet in F Major), Bruckner took up his Fourth Symphony once again. Between 19 November 1879 and 5 June 1880 he composed a new finale – the third, though it shares much of its thematic material with the first version – and discarded the Volksfest finale.
This was the version performed at the work's premiere on 20 February 1881, which was the first premiere of a Bruckner symphony not to be conducted by Bruckner himself. Some changes made after the first performance of the latter – numerous changes in orchestration, a replacement of a 4-bar passage with a 12-bar passage in the Finale, and a 20-bar cut in the Andante. Most of these changes are described in Carragan's "Red Book".
Moreover, Bruckner reworked the passage that bridges the end of the development section of the Finale and the beginning of the reprise. Bars 351–430, i.e. the transition at the end of the development as well as the reprise of the first motif and the first part of the second motif, were removed and replaced by a few bars new transition. This abbreviated version was used for the first performance and Bruckner specifically requested that it was used when the Fourth was played for a second time.
The 1880 version is available in an edition by Robert Haas, which was published in 1936, based on Bruckner's manuscript in the Austrian National Library.<br/>A critical edition of the 1880 version has been issued by Benjamin Korstvedt in 2019.<br/>Another edition has been issued by Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs for the ' in 2021 – with the abbreviated finale as it was performed by Felix Mottl on 10 December 1881 in Karlsruhe.
1886 variant
The 1886 version is largely the same as the 1880 version but has a number of changes – notably in the last few bars of the Finale, in which the third and fourth horns play the main theme of the first movement
In February 1888, Bruckner made extensive revisions to all four movements after having heard the premiere of the 1887 version the previous month. These changes were entered in Bruckner's own hand into the Stichvorlage, which he then dated. The Stichvorlage was sent to the Viennese firm of Albert J. Gutmann sometime between 15 May and 20 June 1888. In September 1889 the score was published by Gutmann. This was the first edition of the symphony to be published in the composer's lifetime. In 1890 Gutmann issued a corrected text of this edition, which rectified a number of misprints. A critical edition has been issued in 2004 by Benjamin Korstvedt.
Mahler reorchestration
In 1895 Gustav Mahler made an arrangement of the 1888 version which is heavily cut and reorchestrated. It is available in recordings by Gennady Rozhdestvensky.
Details of the different versions
The following table summarises the details of the different versions.
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
|-
! style="width:5%" | Year || style="width:6%" | Common designation || style="width:6%" | Korstvedt || style="width:6%" | Redlich || style="width:7%" | Cooke || style="width:10%" | Other designation || style="width:15%" | Source || style="width:10%" | Printed editions
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| 1874–1876 || style="text-align:center;"| <div style="font-size:175%;">I</div> || style="text-align:center;"| <div style="font-size:175%;">I</div> || style="text-align:center;"| <div style="font-size:175%;">I</div> || style="text-align:center;"| <div style="font-size:175%;">–</div> || Original Version<br />Urfassung || style="text-align:center;"| <div style="font-size:175%;">–</div> || Nowak 1975<br/>Korstvedt 2021 (1876 revision)
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| 1878 || rowspan="4" style="text-align:center;"| <div style="font-size:175%;">II</div> || style="text-align:center;"| <div style="font-size:175%;">IIa</div> || style="text-align:center;"| <div style="font-size:175%;">II</div> || style="text-align:center;"| <div style="font-size:175%;">–</div> || Volksfest Version || style="text-align:center;"| <div style="font-size:175%;">–</div> || Haas 1936 (Finale)<br />Haas 1944 (Finale)<br />Nowak 1981 (Finale)<br />Carragan 2014<br/>Korstvedt 2022
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| 1880 || rowspan="3" style="text-align:center;"| <div style="font-size:175%;">IIb</div> || rowspan="3" style="text-align:center;"| <div style="font-size:175%;">III</div> || rowspan="2"| First Definitive || Vienna Version<br />1878/80 Version || style="text-align:center;"| <div style="font-size:175%;">–</div> ||Unpublished
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| 1881 ||| Karlsruhe Version<br />Originalfassung<br />1878/80 Version || Autograph: A-Wn Mus. Hs. 19.476 || Haas 1936<br />Haas 1944<br />Korstvedt 2019<br/>Cohrs 2021
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| 1886 ||| Revised || New York Version<br />1878/80 Version || Copyist's Score: Columbia || Nowak 1953
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| 1887 || rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;"| <div style="font-size:175%;">III</div> || rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;"| <div style="font-size:175%;">III</div> || rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;"| <div style="font-size:175%;">IV</div> || rowspan="2"| Löwe/Schalk || style="text-align:center;"| <div style="font-size:175%;">–</div> || Stichvorlage (private collection)<br />Photographs: A-Wst M.H. 9098/c || Unpublished
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| 1888 || Schalk & Löwe Version<br />Endfassung<br />Fassung letzter Hand || Stichvorlage (private collection)<br />Photographs: A-Wst M.H. 9098/c || Gutmann 1889<br />Wöss 1927<br />Redlich 1955<br />Korstvedt 2004
|}
Bruckner's Fourth Symphony and the "Bruckner Problem"
Any critical appraisal of Bruckner's Fourth Symphony must take into account the so-called Bruckner Problem – that is, the controversy surrounding the degrees of authenticity and authorial status of the different versions of his symphonies. Between 1890 and 1935 there was no such controversy as far as the Fourth was concerned: Gutmann's print of the symphony, the 1888 version, was unchallenged. British musicologist Donald Tovey's analysis of the symphony mentioned no other version, nor does the Swiss theorist Ernst Kurth. Gutmann's version was the one performed by the leading conductors of the day: Mahler, Weingartner, Richter and Fischer.
Haas
In 1936, Robert Haas, editor of the Gesamtausgabe (the critical edition of all of Bruckner's works), dismissed the version printed in 1889 as being without authenticity, saying that "the circumstances that accompanied its publication can no longer be verified"
In 1940 Alfred Orel announced the rediscovery of the Stichvorlage from which the 1888 version had been printed. He noted that Bruckner had emended it himself and in 1948 declared it the true Fassung letzter Hand. Even Haas appears to have had second thoughts on the matter when he learned of the existence of the Stichvorlage. In 1944 he announced his intention to restore the 1888 version to the Bruckner Gesamtausgabe; but events overtook him.
Nowak
With the Anschluss of Austria to Hitler's Germany in 1938, the Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag Wien (MWV) and the Internationale Bruckner-Gesellschaft (IBG) in Vienna had been dissolved, and all efforts had been transferred to Leipzig. In 1945, late into a bomb attack on Leipzig, the publishing stock was destroyed. After the war, the IBG, the MWV, and Bruckner's documented output returned to Austria. In 1951 Leopold Nowak presented the first volume of the Neue Bruckner-Gesamtausgabe with a corrected reprint of Alfred Orel's edition of the Ninth Symphony. Nowak had already served in score-editing capacities before 1945, had worked on discovering new sources, and had corrected errors.
About the Fourth Symphony, Nowak was not immediately convinced that the 1888 version was authentic. He rejected the evidence of the Stichvorlage on the grounds that Bruckner had not signed it. He also repeated, and revised, arguments Haas had invoked to cast doubt on Bruckner's involvement in the preparation of the 1887 version.
Throughout the second half of the twentieth century most commentators accepted Haas's and Nowak's arguments without taking the trouble to investigate the matter any further. The rediscovery of the copyist's score of the 1886 version was the only significant change to the Gesamtausgabe during Nowak's long editorship (1951–1989). Nowak issued critical editions of the original 1874 version (1975), the 1886 version (1953) and the Volksfest finale of the 1878 version (1981), as well as a new edition of the 1881 version (1981). Gutmann's print of the 1888 version, however, remained beyond the pale as far as Nowak was concerned.
Critical appreciation of the symphony took an interesting turn in 1954, when Eulenburg issued a new edition of the 1888 version by the German-born British musicologist Hans F. Redlich. According to Redlich, the publication of the revised version in 1889 did not mark the end of the Fourth Symphony's long process of composition and revision, as most commentators had assumed, for on 18 January 1890 Bruckner supposedly began to indite yet another version of the symphony:
<blockquote>The strangest feature in this tangle of conflicting evidence is the fact that the so called Endfassung (final version) of the symphony which – according to R. Haas – combined versions II and III [i.e. essentially the same as the 1880 version] and is embodied in HS 19476 of the Nat. Bibl. Vienna Austrian National Library, seems to have been put on paper after the issue of the "revised version" (i.e [the published 1888 version]). This emerges clearly from the Facsimile of its first page [published as Plate IV in R. Haas, Anton Bruckner (Potsdam, 1934), p. 128], which bears the date of its commencement: Vienna January 18, 1890. It is possible to see in this MS score as well as in its date a silent protest of Bruckner's against the published score of 1889.</blockquote>
Redlich buttressed this argument by questioning the authenticity of a number of emendations to the score which he considered alien to Bruckner's native style. Among these, the following may be noted: the introduction of piccolo and cymbals in bar 76 of the finale; the use of cymbals in bar 473 of the finale; and the use of muted horns in bar 147 of the finale, the aperto command for which is omitted in bar 155.
In 1969 Deryck Cooke repeated these arguments in his influential series of articles The Bruckner Problem Simplified, going so far as to claim that Bruckner "withheld his ultimate sanction by refusing to sign the copy sent to the printer". Cooke, who referred to the 1888 version as the "completely spurious… Löwe/Schalk score", concluded that the existence of the alleged manuscript of 1890 to which Redlich had first drawn attention effectively annulled all revisions made after 1881.
Korstvedt
In 1996, however, critical opinion of the Fourth Symphony was turned on its head by the American musicologist , who demonstrated that the manuscript referred to by Redlich and Cooke does not in fact exist: "Were it true that Bruckner made such a copy, Cooke's claim would merit consideration. But Bruckner never did. Redlich and Cooke were misled by a photograph in Haas's biography of Bruckner. This photograph, which shows the first page of Bruckner's autograph score of the second version, is cropped in such a way that the date 18. Jänner 1878 – which is mentioned by Haas – seems to read 18 Jänner 1890".
Korstvedt has also refuted Haas's oft-repeated argument that Bruckner was a diffident composer who lacked faith in his own ability and was willing to make concessions that contravened his own artistic judgement. No evidence has been adduced in support of this assessment of the composer. On the contrary, there are first-hand accounts from Bruckner's own associates that it was impossible to persuade him to accept emendations against his own better judgement. It is Korstvedt's contention that while the preparation of the 1888 version was indeed a collaborative effort between Bruckner, Löwe, and probably also Franz and Joseph Schalk, this in no way undermines its authorial status; it still represents Bruckner's final thoughts on his Fourth Symphony and should be regarded as the true Endfassung or Fassung letzter Hand. There is no evidence that Bruckner "refused" to sign the Stichvorlage. He may have omitted to do so, but this is also true of other Bruckner manuscripts whose authenticity is not doubted. Furthermore, there is no real evidence that Bruckner was forced to accept revisions in order to get the work published, as Haas claimed. The only condition that Gutmann made prior to publication was that he be paid 1,000 fl. in advance to cover his costs. Once this money was delivered to him, he would have been quite happy, presumably, to print whatever version of the symphony Bruckner sent him.
In 2004 Korstvedt issued the first modern edition of the 1888 version of the symphony for the Gesamtausgabe. In 2019 Korstvedt issued a modern edition of the 1881 version,