While by no means the deepest and most moving performance of
Franz Schmidt's Fourth Symphony ever recorded,
Franz Welser-Möst's 1994 recording with the
London Philharmonic is likewise far from the shoddiest and most superficial performance ever recorded. Indeed, it falls exactly between those two extremes. For those not already familiar with the work,
Schmidt's Fourth is a monumental four-movements-in-one symphony of endless grief written by the last master of the Austrian romantic symphony, a work touching the same emotional depths as
Mahler in his Sixth Symphony or
Suk in his Asrael Symphony. For those not already familiar with the conductor,
Welser-Möst is the violinist turned conductor who initially made his mark leading the
LPO before hitting the big time with the
Cleveland Orchestra. And for those not already familiar with
Welser-Möst's reputation at this point in his career, the young Austrian was routinely described by the English critics as either surprisingly gifted or barely capable.
Welser-Möst's
Schmidt's Fourth is both but not at the same time. The outer sections are light and perfunctory, played well-enough but with nothing more than professional competence, while the funeral march at the work's core is dark and inconsolable, superbly played by the whole orchestra but especially by principal cellist Robert Truman. This is fine as long as it lasts, but it doesn't last long enough to convince listeners that the work is worth reviving. For the deepest and most moving performance of the Fourth ever recorded, recording of such immense expressivity and massive depth, try
Zubin Mehta's with the
Vienna Philharmonic for Decca -- a performance to break the heart and sear the soul. For the shoddiest and most superficial performance of the Fourth ever recorded, try
Neeme Järvi's with the
Detroit Symphony for Chandos -- a performance to numb the heart and bore the brain. The generous addition of
Schmidt's Variations on a Hussar's Song would be a fine coupling if only the piece were memorable -- or even interesting -- but
Schmidt seems to have gone through the compositional motions and left nothing in his wake but colorful orchestral sounds. Aside from a tendency toward too many inner voices, it's hard to tell that this is the same composer who wrote the Fourth.
English EMI's early digital recording still sounds like an early digital recording: clear but thin, clean but hard, loud but empty.