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)

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

"Revelatory...In each movement, every phrase runs into the next as if a perfectly rehearsed, scripted dialogue were being overheard. What is so compelling is the directionality of the playing that each and every member seems to give their line in a way that is completely unified in goal whilst retaining individual expression. It is though the orchestra has been transformed into one giant organic being; an experience that many will have heard in the concert hall but seldom captured on disc...Highly recommended." - SA-CD.net

Composed in 1866 for the inauguration of a votive chapel in Linz Cathedral, Anton Bruckner’s Mass no. 2 is a fine example of modernity blended with a centuries-old religious tradition, in that wind instruments are set in dialogue with choral writing inspired by Gregorian chant. Shorter in duration but scored for chorus and large orchestra with four soloists, his Te Deum of 1881 was acclaimed by such illustrious contemporaries as Hans Richter and Mahler, while the composer, usually very self-critical, opined that the score of this work would make God ‘judge him kindly’. Like the eminent interpreter of the sacred repertory he is, Philippe Herreweghe here conveys with great fervor his vision of these two major religious works of the second half of the nineteenth century.

This series marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Anton Bruckner, which falls in 2024. It’s dedicated to Bruckner’s symphonies, all recorded in new transcriptions for organ by Hansjörg Albrecht. The third recording was made on the impressive organ of London’s Westminster Cathedral. A bonus track on each volume will be a brand new composition for organ that references Bruckner the composer. Two or three volumes will be released each year, with the project reaching its conclusion in 2024. Hansjörg Albrecht is – besides Ton Koopman, Masaaki Suzuki, Martin Haselböck and Wayne Marshall – one of the few artists who are regularly present internationally both as conductor and concert organist. He is considered a musical innovator and lateral thinker without fear of contact. As a conductor, he consistently follows his own paths – between archive and new creation and with an extensive repertoire from Bach to Messiaen – and with his organ transcriptions he has established himself as a specialist among the virtuosos of his instrument. Hansjörg Albrecht is Artistic Director of the Munich Bach Choir & Bach Orchestra (founded in 1954 by the legendary Karl Richter). He also has a longstanding collaboration with the San Carlo Opera House in Naples, the Chamber Orchestra Moscow, the Staatskapelle Weimar and the CPE Bach Choir Hamburg. As conductor and organist he performs worldwide in the major music centers such as London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Prague, Rome, Moscow, Tokyo and New York and regularly collaborates with internationally renowned artists and orchestras. He also conducts opera productions in Naples and Dubai, among others, as well as ballet projects with the dance companies of Marguerite Donlon and Boris Eifman.

This series marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Anton Bruckner, which falls in 2024. It's dedicated to Bruckner’s symphonies, all recorded in new transcriptions for organ by Hansjörg Albrecht. This first recording in the 10-volume edition is performed on the impressive Bruckner organ of the St. Florian Collegiate Church in Linz, Austria. A bonus track on each volume will be a brand new composition for organ that references Bruckner the composer. Two or three volumes will be released each year, with the project reaching its conclusion in 2024. So, stay tuned.

The Munich concert year of 2005 began at the end of January with two highlights: the two performances of Bruckner's Third Symphony with Mariss Jansons conducting the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in the Philharmonie i'm Gasteig. The live recording makes it possible to experience one of the landmarks of the Late Romantic symphonic repertoire, conducted by an outstanding Bruckner connoisseur. Bruckner completed the score of the opening movement, the Adagio and the Scherzo of his nascent Third Symphony between February and July 1873, and sketched out it's finale on August 31, 1873 in Marienbad, Bohemia. The composer then travelled to Bayreuth, and presented Richard Wagner with his Second Symphony and the already completed manuscripts for the Third. Bruckner asked Wagner to select the symphony he preferred, intending to dedicate it to him - but since both men drank quite a bit of beer during their thorough perusal of the manuscripts, Bruckner was later unable to remember which work Wagner had ultimately chosen, and this had to be clarified in writing. The Third Symphony was completed on December 31, 1873. This first version of Bruckner's Third Symphony became famous because it contained quotations from Wagner's opera "Tristan und Isolde" and his tetralogy "Der Ring des Nibelungen". These quotations were, however, incorporated into blocks that were separated by general rests, so could be later removed without interfering with the substance of the symphony. In 1877, Bruckner fundamentally revised the work, shortened it and eliminated the Wagner quotations. Then, in 1888, he worked out a third and final version, which forms the basis of the present interpretation.

“The reason for this transcription was simply that – once again – I had been busy with the Ninth, this time with the intention of arriving at the essence of the work: I wanted to understand Bruckner even better, come to grips with the architecture of his symphonic thought. And that led automatically to the idea of making an arrangement for a keyboard instrument, because when you tackle that, you are practically compelled to limit yourself to the essence of a work. And: The organ is Bruckner’s instrument, which stayed with him all his life. Even as a boy, Bruckner was fascinated by his father’s organ playing. Later, during his teacher training, he played the organ himself in small rural churches. After his return to the Augustine abbey of St. Florian he became its organist, then cathedral organist in Linz and finally the Emperor’s organist at the Hofburgkapelle in Vienna — of which he was very proud. The organ kept Bruckner company, then, right up to his death.” (Gerd Schaller) Hailed as one of the most significant Bruckner exponents of our time, Gerd Schaller is a freelance conductor in constant demand from leading ensembles, concert halls and opera houses at home and abroad as guest conductor. Along the way, in 2008, he founded Philharmonie Festiva, a symphony orchestra with which he pursues his own ambitious projects. For many years now, Schaller’s activities have centered on the music of Anton Bruckner, by whose combination of deep emotion and extreme complexity the conductor has been fascinated since he was a boy. This fascination has resulted in his large-scale project BRUCKNER2024, in which he aims to record all Bruckner’s significant works to album from his personal perspective by the composer’s bicentenary in 2024.

No more Bruckner under Haitink, that's a cut in the history of interpretation (Wiener Zeitung) To end his active conducting career after 65 years, maestro Bernard Haitink together with the Wiener Philharmoniker gives a farewell concert at the Gro�es Festspielhaus at Salzburg Festival, leaving no doubt of being one of the best Bruckner interpreters ever. The Dutch conductor, who was appointed honorary member of the Wiener Philharmoniker shortly before the concert, is joined by star pianist Emanuel Ax in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4: a musical interaction "of a depth of sentiment and an agreement in making music together that sounds wonderfully natural" (Salzburger Nachrichten). The concert ends with Bruckner's monumental Symphony No. 7 with it's famous second movement, which marked the composer's breakthrough and remains one of his most popular symphonies. The Wiener Philharmoniker play under Haitink's masterful baton completely focused, but dynamic and with deepest sensation. The atmosphere of this last performance is without doubt exceptional and a visibly emotional Haitink was celebrated by the audience with long standing ovations. "You shouldn't throw terms like 'magic moments' around easily. But what could be heard in Salzburg was certainly one" (Klassikinfo. De)

The Altomonte Ensemble, consisting of Rémy Ballot, violin, the violinist Iris Schützenberger, the violists Stefanie Kropfreiter and Peter Aigner and the cellist Jörgen Fog, presents two chamber music works by Anton Bruckner: the string quartet, composed 1861/62 at the suggestion of Joseph Hellmesberger, and the string quintet, composed in 1878/79, which is considered the highlight of Bruckner's chamber music oeuvre. The latter work was premiered by Hellmesberger and his extended quartet only after prolonged hesitation, since he originally had considered it in part as unplayable. The quintet has quite symphonic dimensions in terms of length and complexity. After the mentioned performance in 1884, a music critic wrote about the 3rd movement of the work: "This Adagio has an effect as if were something that had only been now unearthed in the vestiges of Beethoven's papers... a deeply felt work, inspired by inspiration and stemming from the composer's final years."

This extensive release is the second installment of a ten-volume tribute to conductor Michael Gielen. Some of Michael Gielen’s very first broadcast recordings made in the 1960s were of Bruckner’s symphonies. The development of the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg is visible in these recordings, from the very earliest recording all the way to the incredible 2013 performance of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9. All of Bruckner’s symphonies are included on this release. Four of these performances have never been previously released.

REVIEWS:

The first two symphonies enjoy bracingly lucid, affectionate treatment. The Ninth brings a recent (2013) traversal of terrifying intensity, blazing majesty, and iron grip. Nos. 4, 6, and 7 are especially compelling in their unremitting sense of purpose, lyrical glow and affecting humanity.

-- Classical Ear

Mr. Gielen is a superb Brucknerian, and his structural expertise pays special dividends in symphonies others leave incoherent. This Third is a model of clarity.

-- New York Times (David Allen)

Anton Bruckner's symphonies were a constant part of the repertoire for Mariss Jansons and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. The existing recordings - almost all the great Bruckner symphonies – are important documents of Jansons’ deep understanding of the works, and the high musical quality of the recordings also testifies to the long Bruckner tradition at the BRSO. Jansons followed Bruckner’s notes and markings with painstaking precision, and listening to a recording with the score reveals again and again how closely the conductor studied these works with the musicians of his orchestra. Bruckner's symphonies form the backbone of Late Romantic symphonic music. To a certain extent, Bruckner reinvented the symphony – something that not even Liszt or Wagner had dared to do in the wake of the groundbreaking masterpieces of Beethoven, which until then had been considered the culmination and conclusion of the genre. It was Bruckner and, somewhat later, Brahms who sought and found new methods of reviving the symphonic genre and developing it further. In this regard, Bruckner's approach was entirely new. From the outset, he relied on the sound of the large orchestra and, rather than mixing the individual groups of instruments, he tended to either separate them from each other or couple them together like organ registers (with which, as an organist, he was very familiar). Terraced dynamics, that is, the immediate juxtaposition of piano and forte without transition, was also something Bruckner derived from organ music. As a church musician, he had close contact with these and other elements of Baroque music, and they flowed into his symphonies. As far as dramaturgical development was concerned, he tended to favor Schubert; indeed, it was the organic continuation and alternating interconnection of themes Bruckner had learned from Schubert that also explains the unprecedented performance length of his symphonies.

SYMPHONY NO.9

Recorded at Lübeck Cathedral on August 22-23, 1987 as the final concerts of the 1987 Schleswig Holstein Music Festival.

BRUCKNER: SYMPHONY NO. 5 WILH