Well what d’ya know? The old man’s got some piss and vinegar in him still. I’ve never quite forgiven Haitink for giving an interview in Gramophone magazine over a decade ago decrying the tendency of conductors to remake recordings of the same repertoire over and over, and then hypocritically becoming one of the very worst offenders. Perhaps the reason that this account of the Sixth is so fabulous is because it’s only his second “official” recording of the work (well, third if, as a reader kindly reminded me, you count a live Dresden version released on Profil). Anyway, the point is that it seems that he left it alone, relatively speaking, until he had something new to say.

Mind you, his earliest version, part of his very first Bruckner cycle in Amsterdam, was quite good, if perhaps a touch faceless, but here he retains all of those qualities of freshness and vitality that characterized the previous performance, while adding an extra bit of gravitas to the Adagio, and a trenchancy of rhythm everywhere else that elevates this recording to another level entirely. It’s particularly salutary to hear how Haitink zeros in on the music’s special, rambunctious character within Bruckner’s symphonic output as a whole. That means the first movement’s ostinato rhythm doesn’t just repeat: it really moves. The scherzo’s gossamer lightness floats over the bar lines as Bruckner intended, while the finale benefits from having vividly differentiated thematic material. Too often, the movement comes off as a disappointing, generalized trudge across the finish line.

Indeed, the whole performance acts as a tonic to the modern tendency to conduct Bruckner as an experiment in sluggishness: slow, slower, and as slow as humanly possible. The composer considered this work to be his “boldest” symphony, and Haitink clearly got the message. The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra plays magnificently, the warmly burnished brass riding a rich cushion of strings–noble, expressive, grand but never crude. It’s the genuine Bruckner sound, while the engineering does the interpretation full justice. A great release.

– ClassicsToday (10/10; David Hurwitz)

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Symphony No. 5 is widely considered as the finest among the nine numbered symphonies of Anton Bruckner, and ranks among his most famous works. In their first recording on Chandos for almost ten years, the Residentie Orchestra The Hague here performs the work under its chief conductor, Neeme Järvi, who has conducted the symphony with orchestras across the globe, and is recognised as one of the key interpreters of it. The reputation of the Residentie Orchestra The Hague as one of the finest orchestras in Europe makes it an appropriate figurehead for The Hague as a cosmopolitan city of justice, peace and culture.

Before the great wave of Bruckner conducting that has taken place since the 1970s, it was Hans Knappertsbusch (1888–1966) who stood out as unquestionably one of the most important Bruckner exponents, and Bruckner was part of his core repertoire. There are several recordings by him of the 3rd to 5th and 7th to 9th Symphonies, two in the case of the Seventh, a live recording from the 1949 Salzburg Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic, and this transfer direct from the original tapes of 1963 (and not “off the air”) with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra. The Seventh is particularly suited to comparison with older recordings insofar as there is no question of the alternative versions and editions we otherwise associate with Bruckner. The difference between the two recordings is substantial, which is no particular surprise when it comes to “Kna”. His later reading released here is painted on a broader canvas, goes into less individual detail; at the same time, one can appreciate how comprehensively Knappertsbusch plans the grand design while noting with amazement – especially at the brass-scored fortissimo climaxes typical of Bruckner – how energetically the conductor shapes, phrases, “turns into music” even here, something one does not hear these days. The orchestra is impressive for its exceptional solo contributions. It is the same orchestra that would record the Bruckner symphonies complete with Günther Wand a decade later.

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SYMPHONY NO. 7

This music is more serious and more significant than one had thought, the Berliner Zeitung summarized in it's review of Daniel Barenboim's celebrated Bruckner cycle with the Staatskapelle Berlin. Bruckner's unfinished Symphony No. 9 brought to an end, in a poignant manner, the work of one of the greatest symphonic composers of the Classic-Romantic era. Once more the essential elements of Bruckner's symphonic style are present; the technical standard, the intensity of sound, and the enormous richness of expression are in this singular work brought to an unsurpassed niveau.

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There are at least four versions of Anton Bruckner's 2nd Symphony; the last one was written in 1892. Frequently, however – as on this recording – the original version is preferred; as usual with Bruckner, this version of 1872 is bolder and longer. Already very early on, the composer changed the order of movements in this work, which was felt by many to be a response to the dramaturgy of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The Scherzo, as the second movement, has changed places with the ensuing Adagio. In the later version, he also almost completely eliminated the most striking characteristic of this creation, probably due to the urging of his friends and supporters, especially Johann Herbeck: eight of the nine famous tutti rests in the first movement disappear completely. Another special characteristic of the original version is the solo horn passage in the Adagio, written in an extremely difficult register for the instruments of that time – but also of moving beauty.

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 5 is the work Bruckner scholar and composer Robert Simpson considered to be the greatest of all Bruckner symphonies. Here is a recent live concert performance led by Bruckner expert Bernard Haitink. There are people who collect Bruckner 5ths; a lyrical, fascinating masterpiece and one of the few pieces by Bruckner that employs contrapuntal development as well as fascinating harmonic sophistication. The piece is also graced with arrestingly beautiful melodies.

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Recorded in 2014 at the beginning of a series marking his 85th birthday season, Christoph von Dohnányi leads the distinguished Philharmonia Orchestra in a live performance of Anton Bruckner’s monumental Ninth Symphony, which stands alongside the other epoch-defining Ninth symphonies of Beethoven and Mahler. Mr. von Dohnányi was the sixth music director of the Cleveland Orchestra for close to two decades; since 2002 he has been an honored, regular guest conductor with many of America’s leading symphony orchestras, including those of New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Boston.

Bruckner: Symphonies No. 8, WAB 108 & No. 0, "Nullte", WAB 1

This first-ever recording of the original version of Anton Bruckner's sweeping Symphony No. 1 marked the final great achievement of the acclaimed Bruckner conductor, Georg Tintner, who died in 1999. Following the premiere of the symphony in 1868, Bruckner's devoted conductor friends, all of whom were die-hard Wagnerians like Bruckner himself, championed the work (and Bruckner's other compositions) while subjecting it to their own modifications in order to make Bruckner sound more Wagnerian! Regrettably, the trusting Bruckner sometimes allowed and even abetted these interventions. With the advantage of twenty-twenty hindsight, one can see that Bruckner was, from the beginning, a majestically individual composer and should have been left to his own devices. Under the knowing hand of Tintner, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra reveals this symphony's sprawling orchestral architecture as it was first conceived. The first two movements are surprisingly novel for a fledgling essay in the genre. The second movement already sets the standard for those otherworldly adagio movements, with their glacially unfolding melodies, that populate Bruckner's symphonies.

Bruckner: Symphony No. 4

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Although the timings for this recording are about as typical as one will find, the performance is distinctive. Russian-born and American-trained conductor Jakov Kreizberg gives us a rather subdued first movement, beautifully paced and carefully balanced, with the Vienna Symphony drawing close to its senior rival, the Philharmonic, in the beauty of its playing. The mood becomes downright solemn in the Adagio, the most important movement in this symphony. The first subject is funereal, suggesting that Kreizberg recalls that Bruckner intended it as a memorial to Richard Wagner, seriously ill when the composer began his work on it, and deceased before its completion. The contrasting second subject, which can be played as a cheerful contrast, here maintains the original air of seriousness, while realizing in unusually high degree Bruckner’s splendid part-writing in the strings. The build-up to the movement’s climax is unhurried, making the outburst of the full orchestra, complete with crashing cymbals and thunderous drums, even more effective than usual. The long coda comes across as the lamentation Bruckner intended.

Kreizberg then demonstrates that this symphony, unlike several by the composer, changes from solemnity to robust affirmation in its two shorter and concluding movements. After a fast and boisterous Scherzo, we hear a suitably Haydnesque finale, full of playfulness and affirmation. In sum, this is a first-rate Bruckner Seventh, sounding very good in stereo and even better in multichannel SACD mode. Its measured pacing in the first two movements, along with the use of modern instruments, make it a quite different affair from the recent and highly praised Herreweghe recording for Harmonia Mundi, also available as an SACD, with its original instruments and brisk tempos. More dramatic recordings exist, to be sure: one thinks of several deceased masters—to name a few, Eugen Jochum, Günter Wand, Georg Tintner, Hans Knappertsbusch, Kurt Eichhorn, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Otto Klemperer, and Kurt Sanderling. But Kreizberg’s thoughtful and superbly executed interpretation deserves a wide hearing.

Robert McColley, FANFARE

Bruckner, A.: Symphony No. 4, "Romantic"

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

"The orchestra is fine, its brass smooth, clean, deeply sonorous...the Pentatone SACD recording is clear and solid with exceptional dynamic range, and clean as a whistle...Janowski knows his Bruckner as well as anyone around." - American Record Guide

For this outstanding two-disc set, the RSO Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Cornelius Meister, brings us two works by Anton Bruckner (1824-1896): his Symphony No. 9 in D minor WAB 109, and his Mass No. 3 in F minor WAB 28. One of the more popular choral works of late Romanticism, the Mass in F minor is said to have been a work of gratitude for the composer’s recovery from a persistent nervous illness. Soloists featured here are soprano Ruth Ziesak, alto Janina Baechle, tenor Benjamin Bruns, and bass Gunther Groissbock.

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.

Gerd Schaller writes of this new release: “Although extremely numerous and insightful, the surviving fragments of this movement, which were left at various stages of development, present a very incomplete picture of Bruckner’s Ninth. Nevertheless, throughout the decades in which I have theoretically and practically (as a conductor) studied Bruckner’s works, I have always found it regrettable that these fascinating sketches and ideas might never be played at all simply because they were not left in a playable form. Before I embarked on the task of filling in and completing the final movement, I did of course have to consider whether aspiring to finish such a masterpiece as Bruckner’s Ninth might be seen as somewhat presumptuous. A further exploration of the Ninth Symphony in the run-up to a performance is what eventually prompted me to assemble the final movement. Whilst it might be seen as presumption, I believed it to be altogether possible and even desirable to incorporate Bruckner’s incredibly daring and fascinating sketches and drafts into a playable and, most importantly, musically convincing form.“

Immediately after completing the Second Symphony, Anton Bruckner (1824 -1896) continued a fruitful compositional spree by starting the draft of his Third. He had no way of knowing then that this work would continue to occupy him for the rest of his life. Dedicated to Richard Wagner, the work was written in 1873, revised in 1877, and again in 1890. It is regarded by many as Bruckner's artistic breakthrough. According to Rudolf Kloiber, the third symphony "opens the sequence of Bruckner's masterpieces, in which his creativity meets monumental ability of symphonic construction." On this release, Gerd Schaller leads the Philharmonie Festiva in the performance of the Third Symphony in it's 1890 revised version. German conductor Gerd Schaller is best known for his performance and recording of rare works. He conducted the first full recordings of Bruckner's output.

What makes Bruckner's eighth symphony so special to Jukka-Pekka Saraste is the richness of it's atmosphere. He is always excited by the dramatic first subject of the first movement, which is based on the same rhythmical motive as appears in the beginning of Beethoven's Ninth symphony. Saraste chooses to perform the Haas edition because it contains some fascinating sections taken from Bruckner's first version. In his version, Bruckner, advised by his well-meaning supporters, appears to have tried to create a greater symphonic unity and line.

Gerd Schaller writes: “Bruckner conceived and composed his String Quintet in F major as a work of chamber music. It is accordingly different from his symphonies in its layout and its realization; one substantial difference, for instance, is in the lack of mysticism in the string quintet: on the contrary, there is a sense of radiant blossoming. The underlying atmosphere is brighter, more optimistic, clear, even a little livelier; there is a constant flow and current running through the work. The slow movement is so full of inner meaning and in my view is certainly one of the most beautiful pieces of music that Bruckner ever wrote. The heaven-storming events, the concentrations of sound and erratic blocks of the symphonies, will be sought in vain.“ The Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra is one of the oldest and most important Czech orchestras and is a welcome guest throughout the Czech Republic and on concert platforms abroad. The orchestra was established in 1926, three years after the foundation of Czechoslovak Radio. Gerd Schaller studied conducting and held positions at various German state theatres until 2006, and since then has been a freelance artist in constant demand as a guest conductor with well-known orchestras and at concert halls and opera houses at home and abroad.

This recording is based on the edition of Prof. William Carragan (Version 1878), which is oriented towards the Nowak Edition. It is shorter and much catchier than the usually performed version. The strings have the upper hand here instead of the brass, but the four horns do resurface with reminiscences of the first movement. Gerd Schaller leads the Philharmonie Festiva. Live recording.

Without denying its Classical and Romantic models (including Beethoven, Carl Maria von Weber, and Franz Schubert), the F minor Symphony shows a refined grasp of formal, dynamic, and structural logic and demonstrates Bruckner’s extraordinary creative powers in this, his first symphonic work. Formal criteria like repeating the exposition before the development in the outer movements, or Beethoven-like figurations in the second thematic block of the Andante, point to Classical influences, while in the development of the first movement, besides the classically-influenced motivic and thematic treatment, there are clearly Romantic tendencies recalling Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony and Weber’s opera Der Freischutz. Here we already see Bruckner’s great skill in incorporating apparently foreign material into his thematic development- inconspicuously and fruitfully, and without making obvious citations- a quality that may well derive from his experience improvising at the organ.

The first complete recordings of the original versions of the Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5 by Anton Bruckner.

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