Throughout his entire life, Bruckner longed to return to the tranquility of the hilly woodland idyll that was his home in Upper Austria. That impression is perhaps most clearly expressed in his “Romantic” Symphony with its horn calls and the Landler-like dance tunes (in the clarinet) which recalled dance melodies of his childhood. Bruckner explained personally that this was the inspiration for the music for the “meal during the lunch break of the hunt”- and the chirruping of a bird “Zi-zi-bee” all of which combines to make the work a sensitive declaration of love for his childhood in that rural landscape near his birthplace of Ansfelden and the nearby Augustinian monastery of St. Florian. Founded by Prince Elector Moritz von Sachsen in 1548, the Staatskapelle Dresden is one of the oldest orchestras in the world and steeped in tradition. Over its long history many distinguished conductors and internationally celebrated instrumentalists have left their mark on this one time court orchestra. Previous directors include Heinrich Schutz, Johann Adolf Hasse, Carl Maria von Weber, and Richard Wagner, who called the ensemble his “miraculous harp.” Principal conductor since the 2012/2013 season has been Christian Thielemann.

The way Richard Strauss spoke of his “beloved Dresdeners” rang of Bavarian humor blended with a subtle touch of mischievous irony and, first and foremost, a good dose of respect and appreciation. Home to the Königliche musikalische Kapelle (“Royal Musical Ensemble”) and the Court Opera, Dresden soon became a center of Strauss’s music; many of his works were given their premiere there. Ernst von Schuch, Strauss’s “most loyal conductor of choice”, was a key figure: at the symphony concerts given by the Kapelle, the Dresden General Music Director soon acquainted audiences with all of Strauss’s tone poems, from Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche through Also sprach Zarathustra to Sinfonia domestica. Strauss enthused that, years later, it was “the brilliant Schuch’s untiring magic wand” that eventually opened the series of “exemplary premieres” of his operas in Dresden. Works including Salome, Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier made Strauss the leading musical dramatist of his time. He had no fewer than nine operas premiered in Dresden, his “Eldorado for premieres”, and dedicated the Alpine Symphony to the Dresden Kapelle as a token of his gratitude. The present release is the 44th volume in the Staatskapelle Dresden’s exploration of Strauss’s work, and includes, most notably, his Konzert fur Horn und Orchester op. 11.

The Gurre-Lieder occupied various phases in Schoenberg’s life. He explained it to Alban Berg thus: “I wrote the first and second parts and much of the third in March 1900. Then a long break, filled with operetta orchestration. Rest completed March 1901. Then orchestration commenced in August 1901 (again held up by other work). Continued in Berlin mid-1902. Then long interruption by operetta orchestrations. Last worked on in 1903. After that put aside and totally abandoned! Taken up again in Vienna in July 1910. All orchestrated except for the closing chorus. Finished in 1911 in Zehlendorf (outside Berlin).” On this release, the Gurre-Lieder is presented by the Staatskapelle Dresden as the 50th volume in their Edition Staatskapelle Dresden.

Christian Thielemann writes: “I see Die Meistersinger as the pivot and central point of Wagner’s entire oeuvre. On the one hand it is a reaction to Tristan; on the other, he had found himself in a blind alley with Siegfried, and together those two works showed him the way out of it. The fascinating thing about Die Meistersinger is that you can find everything in it. Hero and anti-hero, comedy and tragedy, upperclass and lower-class lovers, burlesque and reflection, the old and the new, in short a whole world. The magic words summing it up for me are ‘atmosphere’ and ‘poetry’. How can I, as a conductor, make the music glitter in its exaggerations and parodies, and at the same time lend it authority? Conversely, how can I make its emotionalism sound not false but genuine, emphasizing the deeply felt popular note in the music? Wagner is fundamentally asking his interpreters to square the circle, which is what makes Die Meistersinger such a difficult work to perform. Perhaps it can succeed only by osmosis, if we open ourselves up entirely to all its moods, colours and aromas, inhaling them so deeply that they naturally emerge from us again at the right moment.”

Sony Classical releases the second installment of Christian Thielemann’s complete cycle of Anton Bruckner’s symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic – the orchestra’s first Bruckner cycle under a single conductor.

Christian Thielemann, Principal Conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden, Artistic Director of the Salzburg Easter Festival since 2013 and Music Director of the Bayreuth Festival, is his generation’s most esteemed interpreter of the Romantic Austro-German repertoire. In the midst of a mutually stimulating relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic, he conducted his first New Year’s Concert with the orchestra in 2019.

Thielemann’s interpretations of Bruckner’s music are rooted on deep expertise and sympathy. Few conductors can match the solemnity and patience he finds in composer’s symphonies, or his ability to draw on the unparalleled beauty of the orchestra’s sound and the special acoustic of its home in Vienna, the Musikverein.

Bruckner conceived the Symphony No 3 as a tribute to his musical guiding light, Richard Wagner. The result is a monolithic memorial that manages to convey deep intimacy – the first symphony in which Bruckner properly revealed his own musical voice. The work heralded a sense of breadth and awe new to symphonic music.

REVIEW:

The Viennese players give Thielemann everything he commands, elegantly shaping and sculpting the bigger structural pillars and bringing crafted nuance and color to the shorter phrases. The sound of the Vienna Philharmonic is nothing less than beautiful, most noticeable in the more complex textures.

– The Classic Review

Anton Bruckner is a composer with an unmistakable musical language: darkly glowing, overwhelmingly beautiful, but also energetic and innovative. For the Berliner Philharmoniker, this music has been part of their artistic identity for over a hundred years. The orchestra now presents Bruckner's symphonies in an exclusive edition, recorded over the last ten years together with some of the foremost Bruckner interpreters of our time. The Berliner Philharmoniker is a German orchestra based in Berlin which is consistently ranked among the top orchestras in the world, distinguished amongst peers for it's virtuosity and compelling sound.

REVIEW:

This may be a premium-priced product but the set undoubtedly offers premium quality, which justifies the price tag, with terrific audio and video as well as excellent documentation. Even more importantly, you get all nine symphonies played by a peerless orchestra. Furthermore, as I hope my comments on the individual performances have shown, there are some considerable interpretations in this set – and not one that is less than very good. I think it’s a decided asset that we see and hear at work not just one conductor but several, all of them excellent Bruckner interpreters.

So, though it’s an expensive proposition, this is a set that will grace any Bruckner collection. With it the Berlin Philharmonic has set out to celebrate their proud Bruckner tradition and they’ve certainly achieved that.

— MusicWeb International

The musicians of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden were committed to their tradition of staging an annual commemorative concert even under these difficult circumstances and decided to organize a Memento Mori to mark this date that is inscribed in the annals of city history. The program comprised a small ensemble conducted by an expert for Baroque music and two ideally suited voices for the format. The concert was recorded for the Deutschlandfunk Kultur station and broadcast as a message of peace in the world. There were fewer than ten people in the auditorium of the Semperoper, all socially distanced and listening raptly to this unique event. Ultimately this was the first sign of life, the first musical greeting from the orchestra in a concert not open to the public after months of inactivity due to the pandemic. When, barely a year ago, Arnold Schoenberg’s “Gurre-Lieder” (featuring more than 300 performers on stage to a full house!) were performed and produced for album shortly afterwards (Edition Staatskapelle Vol. 50, PH 20052), no one would have predicted that this sonorous performance would be followed by a long phase of silence. May the present recording serve as testimony in the form of a contemporary sign of a cultural reawakening.

Review

With this latest release entitled Stumme Seufzer, stille Klagen (Mute Sighs, Silent Laments) the Edition Staatskapelle Dresden series has reached volume 51. Contained here is a pair of J.S. Bach’s greatest church cantatas from the 2021 anniversary concert held in memory of the destruction of Dresden in 1945. The themes of chosen cantatas are death and hope of salvation seen from the standpoint of their being a gateway to everlasting life.

The city of Dresden was destroyed by three days of Allied bombing raids, in February 1945. It is now an annual tradition for the Sachsische Staatskapelle Dresden to mark the anniversary date with a commemorative concert with no interval and or applause during the performance or at the conclusion. For the 2021 memorial concert, the Staatskapelle Dresden was keen to maintain the tradition and went ahead while observing coronavirus regulations – specifically, without a public audience and players socially distanced players on stage.

Dorothee Mields sings Bach’s original 1714 version of Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut a solo cantata for soprano with obbligato parts for oboe and viola. As the cantata begins with a recitative and aria, Herreweghe has chosen to start the score with the Sinfonia from the church cantata Weinen, klagen, sorgen, zagen (Weeping, lamenting, sorrow, sighing) BWV 12. Such an exquisite lament, the aria Stumme Seufzer, stille Klagen (Mute Sighs, Silent Laments) is sung sublimely by Mields, the overall effect heightened by the accompanying oboe part played by Rafael Sousa. In the following short chorale: Ich, dein betrübtes Kind (I, your troubled child) one senses that Mields is living the words of the penitent sinner while the viola part played by Sebastian Herberg is very much her equal.

Recorded in the outstanding acoustic of Semperoper, the sound has clarity and first-class balance. The second ‘bonus’ CD contains extracts from three huge works for chorus and orchestra appropriate to the theme of death and hope of salvation by Verdi, Berlioz and Mahler, all recorded and previously released for the Edition Staatskapelle Dresden series on Profil. Included on the ‘bonus’ CD are the interviews that Stefan Lang held in German with Philippe Herreweghe and with violist Andreas Schreiber.

Verdi completed his Messa da Requiem in 1874...[the] three chosen extracts, the sections: Requiem, Dies irae and Tuba mirum are from the recording conducted by Christian Thielemann at the Memorial Concert held on 13th February 2014 in the Semperoper, Dresden.

Berlioz wrote his Grande Messe des Morts a massive work using a huge orchestra and choral forces, in 1837...[the] recording here is the Dies irae by Sir Colin Davis, conducting the Memorial Concert given on the 13th February 1994 at the Kreuzkirche, Dresden.

The chosen extract [from Mahler's Symphony no. 2 "Resurrection" [is] the Finale...part of the recording conducted by Bernard Haitink at the Memorial Concert on the 13th February 1995 in the Semperoper.

A valuable feature of this Edition Staatskapelle Dresden series, a bilingual edition in German and English, is the scrupulously produced booklets, produced to a high standard[.] These are exemplary performances. From first to last note, I am totally engaged by Herreweghe’s rewarding accounts of two of J.S. Bach’s greatest church cantatas.

--MusicWeb International (Michael Cookson)

Sony Classical releases the full cycle of Bruckner’s symphonies recorded by the Vienna Philharmonic under Christian Thielemann on 11 CDs. The box set, featuring the composer’s nine numbered symphonies, his ‘Study Symphony’, his ‘Nullified’ symphony, and a 172-page booklet. This release constitutes the first complete recording of the Austrian composer’s symphonies from the orchestra under a single conductor. Christian Thielemann enjoys a strong rapport with the Vienna Philharmonic and has established himself as one of his generation’s most esteemed interpreters of the Romantic Austro-German repertoire.

Past praise for previously released CDs included in this set:

Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 / Thielemann, Vienna Philharmonic

This new Bruckner Fourth deserves a strong recommendation. It is a reading of undeniable power and presence.

-- Fanfare

Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 / Thielemann, Vienna Ohilharmonic

Overall, there’s an aliveness to the music, inspired by the concert setting, which adds another reason this Bruckner Eighth is so satisfying. If you want to hear Thielemann at his best, conducting a stupendous orchestra, that’s precisely what we have here.

-- Fanfare

Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 . Thielemann, Vienna Philharmonic

Thielemann's interpretation has intimacies hard to find in other versions, and a vulnerability movingly communicated in the Vienna Philharmonic’s super-empathetic playing.

-- BBC Magazine