Schubert Unfinished & Great Symphonies: Vivid recordings full of period-instrument colour

Belgian conductor René Jacobs was a leading countertenor before he forsook singing for a career on the podium. You might be tempted then to assume that his approach to Schubert’s symphonies with Belgium’s B’Rock Orchestra would be lyrical and songful. Quite the opposite. Jacobs concentrates not so much on the long musical line but instead on filling in moment-by-moment background, like an art restorer revealing detail that’s long been hidden.

His speeds are mostly not particularly fast, but the music sounds much busier than usual given the amount of extra back-and-forth between instrumental groups that he chooses to focus on. It’s all delivered in vividly recorded period-instrument colours, with all that means in terms of reduced homogeneity by comparison with modern instruments — lightweight violins, sinewy cellos, grainy double basses against a wind section that is consistently more to the fore.

The two movements of the Unfinished Symphony are preceded by separately tracked readings (in German) of words Schubert wrote in 1822, the year he worked on the symphony. The most controversial choice in these highly stimulating readings is the brisk speed of the second movement of the Unfinished. For sensitive souls, definitely a case of try before you buy.