Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor: Bernstein, Leonard

Composer: Beethoven, Ludwig van

Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 60

Venue: Grosser Musikvereinssaal, Vienna

Playing Time: 00:38:15

Television Director: Burton, Humphrey

Catalogue Number: A05500650

The Fourth Symphony was first performed in Vienna in 1807 at the home of one of Beethoven's patrons, Prince Franz Joseph Lobkowitz. Compared with the Third Symphony, the Fourth is more modest and traditional; its style and structure are closer to the Second. The Fourth Symphony is not a monumental work; on the contrary, the orchestra is the smallest for any Beethoven symphony. The gentle harmony and placidity of this symphony prompted the French composer Hector Berlioz to comment about the second movement: "...the being who wrote such a marvel of inspiration... was not human."

This recording is part of Bernstein's complete cycle of Beethoven symphonies recorded with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra live in Vienna. The series won the Ace Award, the U.S. Cable TV Association's top award for outstanding quality and entertainment value. Bernstein's impassioned renderings of Beethoven move audiences in a unique way. "Beethoven has always meant universality to me, ever since my early adolescence, when I first heard that unforgettable cry of 'Brüder!'. From that moment on, every... symphony came to mean heart-to-heart communication, travelling satellite-fashion via the cosmos itself. I offer [this cycle] to all music-loving ears as a testament of faith and of my most profound reactions to this greatest of all composers." (Leonard Bernstein, 1980)