NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Christoph Eschenbach

Bruckner’s Fourth was the only one of his nine symphonies to which he gave a nickname: both in the score itself and in his correspondence he called it his »Romantic« symphony. Was he referring to the opening horn calls, or the hunting signals in the third movement, as typical symbols of »woodland romanticism«? There is certainly no lack of poetic interpretations of this symphony. But one can also enjoy the purely musical beauty of the work, siding with a characteristic comment of the composer’s about the fourth movement: »I never really know myself what I was thinking about when I wrote it!«