Bruckner’s Fifth is eminently suited to an arrangement for performance on the organ above all because of its musical texture. In no other Bruckner symphony, for example, does counterpoint play such an important part. I am thinking in particular of the great fugue in the final movement. It really does seem as if many passages of this magnificent work were composed as if with the organ in mind, even though the Fifth is not a piece for organ at all, being in the first place a symphonic work. And yet it lends itself admirably to the extraction of a compositional substrate with no loss of essential content. That cannot be said of all Bruckner’s symphonies. Of all his symphonies, in my opinion, the Fifth, Eighth and Ninth are most amenable to an arrangement for organ. Building on the compositional core, it is the orchestral treatment above all that plays a key role. If this is lacking, an arrangement of the work can deprive the work of its grandeur. That is again at risk if one attempts to copy the orchestra or to transpose certain orchestral effects one-to-one onto the organ. Such an approach is generally unsatisfactory, because organ writing is governed by different rules than those applying to orchestral scoring. It would be fatal to make the organ rival the orchestra. My aim from the start was to avoid imitating the orchestra and to create a work specifically for organ in the manner of an organ symphony.

After acclaimed recordings of the Third (‘Dausgaard… makes the music sound vital and even revolutionary’, Fanfare) and Sixth (‘This persuasively played work could be no better served’, MusicWeb International), Thomas Dausgaard and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra now present Anton Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony, ‘Romantic’ in its second version (1878-1880), the one with which this work has become widely known. “Nothing like this has been written since Beethoven” conductor Hans Richter is said to have declared after the successful premiere of Bruckner's Fourth Symphony in Vienna in 1881. This success finally gave the 56-year-old composer the attention and recognition he sorely needed and one can affirm that it was from this day onwards that Bruckner was actually cultivated in Vienna after years of public humiliation. Despite its nickname given by the composer himself, this symphony in no way expresses existential pain. Rather, the romanticism refers to the experience of nature – from sublime forest magic to hunting scenes – emphasized by the horn, the quintessential romantic instrument, which is given a prominent role.

REVIEW:

Dausgaard emerged early on as one of the most convincing HIP conductors of standard repertoire, and he has earned the right to express his individuality in Bruckner under normal conditions, one might say. His involvement with the score is undoubted, which makes the issue of fast tempos mostly irrelevant. Being different is worthwhile only when the difference is musically meaningful. I think that Dausgaard easily passes that test, in a Bruckner Fourth that is among the most striking in years.

-- Fanfare

This is one volume in a multi-volume set. Find the complete box set here.

On the occasion of the Bruckner bicentenary, the Wiener Philharmoniker recorded its first ever complete Bruckner cycle under the baton of Christian Thielemann. In addition to the well-known canon of nine symphonies, the two earliest Bruckner symphonies in F minor and D minor, which are a world premiere on DVD and Blu-ray, were also recorded for the first time in the orchestra's history. This uniquely complete edition from the Musikverein and Salzburg Festival, featuring 11symphonies, also includes extensive conversations with Christian Thielemann about each symphony and insights into his rehearsal work.

This series marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Anton Bruckner, which falls in 2024. It’s dedicated to Bruckner’s symphonies, most of them recorded in new transcriptions for organ by Hansjörg Albrecht. The 7th recording was made on the church organ of Hofkirche in Luzern with the transcription of Bruckner’s 6th Symphony by Eberhard Klotz. The bonus track on this volume is the composition “Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini” for organ by the Italian composer Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini.

This is one volume in a multi-volume set. Find the complete box set here.

On the occasion of the Bruckner bicentenary, the Wiener Philharmoniker recorded its first ever complete Bruckner cycle under the baton of Christian Thielemann. In addition to the well-known canon of nine symphonies, the two earliest Bruckner symphonies in F minor and D minor, which are a world premiere on DVD and Blu-ray, were also recorded for the first time in the orchestra's history.

Anton Bruckner 200 (1824-2024)

Bruckner's symphonies are strenuous alpine hikes, and Blomstedt is a mountain guide who not only has the next fork in the road in mind but knows every stone on the path before the group has even started. The listener observes an ongoing creative process as if watching a sculptor at work. Blomstedt's unique Bruckner cycle impressively reflects the extraordinary spirit of the long-standing partnership between the legendary conductor and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. The nine symphonies released in this box were recorded at the Gewandhaus Leipzig between 2005 and 2012.

REVIEW:

Bruckner's symphonies are akin to strenuous mountain hikes, and Herbert Blomstedt is a mountain guide who not only has an eye on the next fork in the road, but also knows every stone on the path before the group has even started. The listener observes an ongoing creative process as if watching a sculptor at work. Blomstedt's unique Bruckner cycle impressively reflects the extraordinary spirit of the longstanding partnership between the legendary conductor and the orchestra.

An exemplary cycle of recordings. Recorded between 2005-12.

-- Merker Online (Germany

This series marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Anton Bruckner, which falls in 2024. It’s dedicated to Bruckner’s symphonies, most of them recorded in new transcriptions for organ by Hansjörg Albrecht. The 6th recording was made on the church organ of St. Margaret in Munich with the transcription of Bruckner’s 5th Symphony by Erwin Horn. The bonus track on this volume is the composition “Poème pour orgue” for organ by French composer Françoise Choveaux who took several notes out of Bruckner’s Fifth and created a window out of the Symphony. (This bonus track is a digital only release.)

The first performance of Anton Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony at the Zurich Tonhalle took place on 14 January 1924, to mark the centenary of the composer’s birth. Under the direction of Walter, Furtwängler, Klemperer, Böhm and Karajan (to name but a few!), the orchestra has since given many performances of this monumental work which was its composer’s first great success and which the conductor Hermann Levi considered ‘the most significant composition since the death of Beethoven’. The orchestra’s Brucknerian tradition is perpetuated with this cycle conducted by its music director Paavo Järvi, which will continue with the Eighth and Ninth Symphonies until 2024, the year of Bruckner’s bicentenary.

Anton Bruckner, who had been cathedral organist in Linz since Christmas 1855, had already been a student of the Viennese music theorist Simon Sechter since he took up this post. Despite these intense and extensive studies, he then took private lessons with the Linz theater conductor Otto Kitzler. Kitzler encouraged him from the beginning to write complete pieces and no longer to carry out mere exercises. This resulted in the “Kitzler-Studienbuch” in 1862, which, in addition to piano pieces, also contains quartet sketches and songs for voice and piano. On this recording on a restored Bösendorfer fortepiano owned by Bruckner, Christoph Eggner presents countless Waltzes, Minuets, Polkas, Marches, but also Etudes, individual movements such as an Andante or a Rondo as well as four Fantasies. These small pieces correspond to the taste of his time, and the fact that Bruckner was already thinking in terms of orchestral sound is shown by the instrumentation notes and executions that follow these piano pieces – thus already in these beautiful pieces is the seed for all the admirable creations of the awakening symphonic composer Anton Bruckner.

This is one volume in a multi-volume set. Find the complete box set here.

On the occasion of the Bruckner bicentenary, the Wiener Philharmoniker recorded its first ever complete Bruckner cycle under the baton of Christian Thielemann. In addition to the well-known canon of nine symphonies, the two earliest Bruckner symphonies in F minor and D minor, which are a world premiere on DVD and Blu-ray, were also recorded for the first time in the orchestra's history. This uniquely complete edition from the Musikverein and Salzburg Festival, featuring 11 symphonies, also includes extensive conversations with Christian Thielemann about each symphony and insights into his rehearsal work. “Orchestra and conductor impressed with Anton Bruckner's Second.” (Der Standard on Bruckner 2) “Only the highest musical perfection sounds like this.” (Die Presse)

Bruckner's music embodies the visions of a devout, ordinary man. Parts of his expansive, shimmering musical landscapes are influenced by Wagner, but one can also detect Schubert, who began life in similar circumstances. The reposeful piety which runs through Bruckner's symphonic spectrum lends his music its unique power of attraction.

Recorded 1975-76.

Renaissance polyphony and contemporary sound clouds orbit around vocal late Romanticists like satellites. The Zurich Chamber Singers, conducted by Christian Erny, unearth a special narrative drama. Starting with Anton Bruckner, they turn their attention to Palestrina as a point of reference. At the same time, they cast a spotlight back on the work of the Austrian vocal innovator through three contemporary works. A comprehensive selection of Bruckner's Latin motets combine here with chosen works by Palestrina and three world premiere recordings of the Stuttgart composer Burkhard Kinzler’s commissioned works.

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina may have been one of Bruckner’s musical inspirations and historical references, as he, albeit some three hundred years Bruckner’s senior, was continuously celebrated in music history for centuries after his death. Bruckner’s Catholic faith – supremely profound, and at times unhappy – is inherent to almost all of his compositions. The composer is sometimes said not to have managed to write a single secular piece, including his symphonies. In this album, the Zurich Chamber Singers focus on Bruckner’s Latin motets and choose to consider them something of a musical prayer book and personal diary of the composer. Bruckner, who suffered from severe self-doubts throughout his life, composed motets for almost his entire life. Although in varying intervals and with considerably less public attention than other of his works, Bruckner was dedicated to the composition of motets with admirable regularity. Therefore, these pieces allow a singular access to Bruckner’s musical development and personality, as well as his religious psyche. In this program Anton Bruckner’s motets are presented in a careful sequence combining them with works by Palestrina and Burkhard Kinzler. The latter feature as a commentary that both hearkens back ‘ad fontes’ and towards the twenty-first-century present.

Following his critically acclaimed interpretation of Bruckner's 7th Symphony, Iván Fischer leads his Budapest Festival Orchestration to the summit of 19th century symphonic music, with this new recording of the monumental, enigmatic, unfinished and deeply religious 9th Symphony of Anton Bruckner. The three completed movements are pervaded with angst and awareness of death. As in Mozart’s unfinished Requiem, the first movement is dominated by a dark D minor. The pounding rhythms of the scherzo seem to anticipate Stravinsky and Bartók, while the large leaps and piercing dissonances point towards the Second Viennese School of Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern. The Adagio is Bruckner’s heartrending farewell to the world and to life. Although Bruckner died before he could write the huge fourth movement he had in mind, there is something satisfying and comforting in concluding with the Adagio.

Sony presents the next 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.

The Vienna Philharmonic premiered four of Anton Bruckner’s nine symphonies, including No. 4 in 1881 and has enjoyed a unique relationship with the Austrian composer’s music since 1873. 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.

REVIEW:

From expectant pizzicatos and hallowed strings to the blazing brass at the finish, for eighty-two minutes Christian Thielemann and the Vienna Philharmonic engage and illuminate us with this majestic, sonorous and deeply expressive account of the mighty Fifth (Nowak’s edition), captured during March last year in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein, resplendently and with focus within the generous acoustic.

It’s an eloquent and powerful performance, detailed, dynamic, as capable of cathedral hush and awe as being sonically magnificent in Heaven-reaching fortissimos, the latter avoiding coarseness and brass-heavy balances. Drama, too, in the way Thielemann adjusts tempos without losing the movements’ threads and invests such as a quiet bass line with significance.

-- Colin's Column