Conducted by Alfred Walter with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra.
I. Largo - Allegro - 00:00
II. Andantino - Allegro - 10:32
III. Andante Maestoso - 17:17
IV. Larghetto - Allegretto - 31:07
Spohr wrote his Symphony No. 4 in F major, Opus 86, in 1832, a time of some difficulty in Kassel. Prince Friedrich Wilhelm had assumed power, on the withdrawal of his father, the Elector, but was deprived of the money necessary to maintain the opera, while attempts were made to induce musicians on contract to resign. Spohr now had less work to do. He began work on the new symphony during a summer holiday at Neundorf. A volume of poems by Carl Pfeiffer had recently been published and he considered at first setting the poem Die Weihe der Töne as a memorial cantata to the writer. Eventually he decided instead to make a symphony of it, describing it as "characteristisches Tongemaelde in Form einer Sinfonie", with its four movements following very closely the literary source of the work.
The first movement opens with a slow introduction, illustrating the profound silence before the creation of sound. The Allegro that follows, in traditional sonata form, includes the gentle sound of the breeze and woodwind bird-song, before the storm that forms the central section of the movement, to die out in the distance in the final bars. The second movement demonstrates the function of music as lullaby, dance and serenade, the last with a solo cello. All three finally combine in a conductor's nightmare of varying bar-lines and tempi.
The third movement shows the role of music as an inspiration to courage, here with a narrative element. Soldiers depart for battle, while in a central trio section those remaining behind express their anxiety, followed by the victorious return of the marching troops and the song of thanksgiving. The final movement buries the dead, to the sound of the chorale Begrabt den Leib, leading to ultimate consolation in tears.
Contemporary critical reaction to the symphony was mixed, in view of its programmatic nature, which some saw as indicating a lack of musical inspiration. With the public in Germany, and later in England, the symphony was enormously successful, in the latter country only after Spohr himself had directed the orchestra through the complications of the second movement.
