B'Rock Orchestra, René Jacobs - Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5 (2021) [DSD256]

Tragic And Light Symphonies From A Heavy Soul
Multiple prize-winning conductor René Jacobs and the B’Rock Orchestra present the third installment of their Schubert cycle on Pentatone with a recording of the composer’s Fourth and Fifth Symphony.
Just as with the Second and Third, Jacobs approaches these works as a symphonic pair, revealing contrasting aspects of Schubert’s personality and compositional approach. The Fourth is Schubert’s first symphony in a minor key and adumbrates a new harmonic worldview that Dvořák associated with Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde.
On the contrary, the Fifth sounds Mozartian and cheerful, although that light-heartedness is only an appearance, as is so often the case in Schubert’s music. In the composer’s words, “too light a mind usually harbors a heart that is too heavy!” Looking closer beneath the surface, the cross-relations between the “Tragic” Fourth and “lighter” Fifth become more evident.
The players of the B’Rock Orchestra present these works on period instruments. Transparent, but full of fire.