Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 in D-minor With a final movement, drawn from original sources and supplemented and completed by Gerd Schaller Revised Edition (2024) 'For the fourth movement of his Ninth Symphony Anton Bruckner left only sketches. Gerd Schaller signs already the third recording of the symphony as he completed it. In fact, he conducts a revised version of his first score. The result is fascinating because of it's modernity and at the same time it sounds so familiar.' Pizzicato

Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 in D-minor With a final movement, drawn from original sources and supplemented and completed by Gerd Schaller Revised Edition (2024) 'For the fourth movement of his Ninth Symphony Anton Bruckner left only sketches. Gerd Schaller signs already the third recording of the symphony as he completed it. In fact, he conducts a revised version of his first score. The result is fascinating because of it's modernity and at the same time it sounds so familiar.' Pizzicato

Star conductor Herbert von Karajan is best known today for his studio recordings. However, although as a media pioneer he recognised the technical possibilities for creating recordings, he always considered the live concert to be the ideal. The radio recordings with the Berliner Philharmoniker, which were made in Berlin between 1953 and 1969 and which we present to you in this edition - mostly as first releases - represent an exciting paradox in this respect: they are snapshots that capture the spontaneity of the live performance, the magic of the unique musical moment. Never before has it been possible to experience Karajan the live artist and his joint work with the Berliner Philharmoniker as vividly as in this comprehensive edition.

SOMM Recordings is proud to pay tribute to the 50th anniversary of legendary conductor Rudolf Kempe (1910 - 1976) by re-issuing his 1971 ex-libris stereo recording, which was first released in 2000. This performance of Kempe conducting the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich in the Symphony No. 8 in C Minor by Anton Bruckner was recorded at the Zürich Tonhalle Studios, and it now features state-of-the-art remastering by Lani Spahr. Kempe served as the Chief Conductor of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich from 1965 - 1972, and this rare recording of Bruckner's Eighth Symphony is an important memorial of his tenure. His sudden death at the age of 65 in May 1976, ten months after being appointed chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London, was truly a profound shock to the world of music. Robert Matthew-Walker writes: 'Kempe's knowledge of the score - he almost invariably conducted from memory - combined with his sensitivity and deep musicianship, his experience as an orchestral player and his imaginatively flexible approach to structure and phrasing marked him out as a true master. We must profoundly regret that he did not record more Bruckner: in his hands, the Eighth Symphony is a tremendous revelation of the composer's genius, for he shows it to be one of the greatest symphonies of any period, enormously powerful, vast in conception, full of wonderful melody and orchestrated magnificently.' Bruckner's Eighth is his last completed symphony and the only one to be published before it's first performance, which took place in 1892. Two complete autograph manuscripts of the symphony exist, dating from 1887 and 1890, and there are multiple editions. The first edition, containing some relatively minor changes from the 1890 manuscript, was the version used at the first performance. The Austrian musicologist, Robert Haas, took what he admired from Bruckner's different versions and combined them into his own edition. His version has proved enduringly popular, and it is the one used by Rudolf Kempe. SOMM has embraced historical recordings from it's very founding in 1995. Since it's first forays, much has changed in the field of re-issued historical performances. Most notable, for SOMM, is the label's close collaboration with audio restoration engineer and producer Lani Spahr, which began with the issue of a four-CD set, Elgar Remastered, in 2016 and has since produced a multitude of critically acclaimed recordings. Gramophone has noted, 'There are historic releases that make the grade because they are just that - 'historic' - and there are releases that make history because they are musically overwhelming. This set is both.'

I focused on identifying the essence of the symphony and bringing it to life on the organ. However, this also meant that I had to concentrate on certain elements and omit others. Ultimately, my aim was to create an independent organ work through my arrangement. I had great pleasure in transcribing Bruckner's Seventh Symphony for the organ, with it's wide-flowing lines and rich palette of sounds. May this arrangement inspire listeners to get an idea how it might have sounded when Bruckner enchanted the audience with his improvisations.'

The Places
• The journey is concerned largely with places of importance in the life of Anton Bruckner, his birth-place, the monastery of St Florian where he was trained and worked, and Vienna, where he spent his final years.

The Music
• A man of modest origins, the composer Anton Bruckner continued and developed the symphonic tradition of Vienna in a series of imposing works that also drew inspiration from Wagner.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo 2.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 68 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

Also available on Blu-ray

Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden are continuing their internationally acclaimed Bruckner cycle with the Symphony No. 5. For Anton Bruckner, his Fifth Symphony was a glorious confrontation with the music of the past – from a personal, biographical angle, but also as a departure from the composition techniques he preferred up to this point. Not for nothing is this tremendous opus magnum regarded as Bruckner’s “contrapuntal masterpiece”. In this universally lauded performance, Christian Thielemann, already the leading Bruckner interpreter of our times, has once again proven himself to be a “magician of the Bruckner sound”. (Kurier)

Anton Bruckner
SYMPHONY NO. 5


Dresden Staatskapelle
Christian Thielemann, conductor

Recorded live at the Semperoper, Saxon State Opera, Dresden, 2013

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, German, French
Running time: 89 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

The distinguished Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt, long associated with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra as a regular guest, conducted Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 in d Minor, in concerts on May 7 and 7, 2009 in the in the Philharmonie i'm Gasteig in Munich. This new BR-KLASSIK CD presents not only the live recording of this compelling interpretation but also a live orchestral rehearsal recording from May 2009. The latter forms part of BR Klassik's acclaimed series Conductors at Rehearsal, offering a glimpse into their artistic work with the orchestra. "It seems that the Ninth is a limit. He who wants to go beyond it must pass away. [...] Those who have written a Ninth stood too close to the hereafter." Arnold Schoenberg wrote those words in reference to Gustav Mahler, who had just died without ever having heard his own Ninth Symphony performed. Bruckner was apparently afraid of the fatal number as well: "I don't want to start on my Ninth at all, I don't dare'. However, very soon after the completion of his Eighth Symphony in September 1887, Bruckner started on his first drafts. Overall, work on the Ninth then dragged on over the long period from 1887 to 1896, having to be constantly interrupted because of the composer's deteriorating health. Bruckner finally died while working on the fourth movement - and his masterpiece dedicated to "the beloved God' remained unfinished. Even without a finale, the three-movement torso that survives is, of course, extremely impressive. The completed movements were first performed in Vienna on February 11, 1903, in an unusual personal version by the conductor Ferdinand Lowe. The actual first performance of the original score with it's three movements only took place on April 2, 1932 in Munich. Ever since, Bruckner's Ninth has been an essential part of the Late Romantic symphonic repertoire - above all in it's original version. The detailed rehearsal recordings on the CD provide a deeper insight into this magnificent work. Listeners can experience first-hand how the conductor's wishes, ideas and instructions are implemented, how his explanations and his temperament change the resulting sound, and what thoughts lie behind the interpretation of the work. Thanks to this series, which is now also available on CD, the unique artistic partnership between Herbert Blomstedt and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra can be documented. Blomstedt's seemingly inexhaustible source of energy - music itself - is palpable in every word and every bar. ? Herbert Blomstedt conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in concerts on May 7 and 8, 2009 ? Live recording of Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 ? Includes "Conductors at Rehearsal": live recording of the orchestra rehearsal May 7 and 8, 2009 for the Munich concerts

Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 in D-minor Gerd Schaller, conductor, London Philharmonic Orchestra With a final movement, drawn from original sources and supplemented and completed by Gerd Schaller 'My work on completing the symphony drew upon compositional principles characteristic of Bruckner's later style. From the Seventh Symphony onwards, and certainly by the Eighth at the latest, this particular late style that he had developed became increasingly evident. I applied these principles by analogy and developed them further. Further sources of inspiration were Bruckner's 'Psalm 150' and his symphonic choral work 'Helgoland'. Ultimately, my decades of experience as a conductor and Bruckner exponent also found their way into this performance, although it should be noted that I had already performed an initial version of my completed work in concert and recorded it on CD in 2016. This experience gave me the opportunity to review the piece once again from a practical perspective.' Gerd Schaller

This is the first release ever of all the Bruckner symphony recordings that Hans Rosbaud made for SDR (now SWR). Hans Rosbaud is remembered chiefly as a committed performer of contemporary music. This resulted from his regular appearances in Donaueschingen, where he conducted either the world or regional premieres of works by Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and many others. Crucially important was his conducting of the first concert performance of Arnold Schönberg’s opera Moses and Aaron in Hamburg on 12 March 1954. However he devoted equal attention to the works of Richard Wagner, Anton Bruckner and Gustav Mahler. which is all the more reason to take a closer look also at his other recordings, in this case, at his Bruckner interpretations. Rosbaud produced performances of all Bruckner's symphonies for the radio broadcasting company Sudwestfunk (SDR), apart from the First, which he never conducted.

• Anton Bruckner died before completing work on the fourth and final movenment of his 9th symphony. • Conductor Mario Venzago's ongoing complete Bruckner symphony cycle has provoked vehement pro and contra critical reaction. • The Bern Symphony's history dates back more than 125 years.

Otto Klemperer is, to this day, still considered one of the great Bruckner conductors. His EMI studio recordings made in the 1960's remain benchmark reference recordings. This 3CD collection of live Bruckner recordings from the 1950's and 1960's, a welcome addition to his famed studio recordings, finds Klemperer leading three of the finest European orchestras. Newly remastered.

Austrian-born conductor Hans Rosbaud (1895-1962), noted champion of contemporary and Austro-German late romantic-era music, features here with an orchestra he came to be associated with and much-identified late in his career, the Southwest Radio-Symphony, Baden-Baden, in these mid-1950’s performances of four of Anton Bruckner’s monumental symphonies. +Includes the early Second, the lesser-known Fifth, the sublime Seventh, and the last fully completed, and towering, symphony, the Eighth.