SOMM Recordings continues it's six-volume Bruckner from the Archives series in celebration of the bicentennial of Anton Bruckner with the penultimate Volume 5, featuring his Sixth and Seventh Symphonies and the Te Deum. The series owes it's unprecedented success to SOMM Executive Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer, Lani Spahr. He conceived and designed the series in collaboration with Professor Ben Korstvedt, author of the authoritative notes, and John F. Berky, Executive Secretary of the Bruckner Society of America and Series Consultant. Bruckner thought of his Symphony No. 6 in A major (1881) as his boldest, his "sauciest," symphony. Sadly, it was not published during his lifetime, and he heard only the Adagio and Scherzo performed. When the first full performance was given by Gustav Mahler in 1899 and published that same year, it was with cuts and edits. The original version of Bruckner's score was not published until 1935, and this version is performed here in a 1961 recording with Christoph von Dohnanyi conducting the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra. The Symphony No. 7 in E major (1885) provided Bruckner with his public breakthrough. The first performance in Leipzig came just over a year after it's completion, and the second performance the following year was even more warmly received by Munich's music lovers. The Bavarian King, Ludwig II, was so impressed with the symphony that he financed it's immediate publication. By the late 1880s, Bruckner's Seventh was being widely performed, from Amsterdam and Berlin to New York and Chicago. The performance of the symphony included here is a 1955 recording by what was then the South German Radio Symphony (now the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra) led by their long-time music director, Hans Muller-Kray. Anton Bruckner was a devoutly religious man, and he composed his Te Deum (1884) "out of gratitude to God." The work being contemporaneous with his Seventh Symphony, elements of Bruckner's mature symphonic style find their way into this sacred text. It received it's first full performance at the Vienna Musikverein in 1886, and the recording on this release was made in that same hall in 1962, during a concert celebrating the 150th anniversary of the founding of�the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. The performance features Herbert von Karajan conducting the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna Singverein.

Mari Kodama celebrates the Bruckner bicentenary year with a collection of piano works, most of which are rarely heard. While some of them, such as the Fantasie, Erinnerung and Stille Betrachtung, reveal the serious symphonist and church composer, the many dances included on this album illuminate a lighter side of the composer. In general, hearing his approach to the piano enriches our understanding of this enigmatic genius. As much of the material was taken from study sketch books, these pieces allow us a look into the workshop of this ever-searching spirit. To Kodama, the Bruckner that appears from his works is in many ways more interesting than the various, cliche-ridden accounts of his life and character. Instead, Kodama aims to paint a nuanced Bruckner portrait, gaining in depth thanks to the original selection and perspective. Mari Kodama is one of the most extraordinary pianists of our age, and has an impressive Pentatone discography, featuring Beethoven's complete piano sonatas (2003-2014), piano concertos of Loewe and Chopin (2003), Tchaikovsky Ballet Suites for Piano Duo (2016), de Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain (2017), Martinu's Concerto for Two Pianos (2018), Kaleidoscope, Beethoven Transcriptions and MON AMI Mon amour (both 2020), New Paths (2022) and Mozart & Poulenc Double Concertos (2024).

Guttler, Ludwig: Trumpet & More

10 Sacred Choruses

In September 2024, the music world celebrates the 200th anniversary of Anton Bruckner's birth in 1824. To coincide with the anniversary itself, and following the release of Bruckner's Ninth 4 earlier in 2024, Accentus Music will release the recording of Bruckner's Symphony No. 2 with the Bamberg Symphony, this time under the musical direction of their conductor laureate Christoph Eschenbach. Composed in a rather restless and pessimistic state of mind, Bruckner's Second oscillates between heartfelt prayers, desperate outbursts, helpless silence, and ecstatic dance scenes. A co-production with BR-Klassik

The Subscription Concert Series of the Wiener Philharmoniker from the Golden Hall of the famous Musikverein, are special concerts reserved for subscribers, hence the name. But to become a subscriber, due to the exceptional quality of the concerts and the limited offer, the average waiting time is more than 10 years. With this series, these very special concerts are made available for the first time audiovisually to a wider audience worldwide. With Zubin Mehta and Martha Argerich "two veteran musicians gave rise to real storms of enthusiasm in the Musikverein." (Wiener Zeitung) "The power of true 'Old Masters' - Martha Argerich sat at the piano as spiritedly sparkling as ever. Just as Bruckner's Fourth subsequently succeeded in becoming a magnificent dialogue between orchestra and conductor: Bruckner impulsive, intimate, poignant, stirring." (Kronenzeitung) Program: Robert Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor Robert Schumann: From Kinderszenen, Op. 15: No. 1 Von fremden Landern und Menschen Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 "Romantic"

Classical Music

Classical Music

This series of DVDs will make the publicly broadcast BSO concerts from this era available for the first time since they were broadcast. This rare material represents some of the earliest televised concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and William Steinberg, and has been restored using the greatest care and state-of-the-art techniques. It is of exceptional musical interest and historic value. The BSO's Music Director for just three seasons, Steinberg spent a great deal of time in the USA, having left Europe following Music Director positions in Cologne, Prague and Frankfurt. He also co-founded the Palestine Orchestra, later the Israel Philharmonic. His time with the BSO came at the end of his career following his position as the Music Director of Pittsburgh Symphony, which he held for over 20 years. Steinberg recorded a great deal of material with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to great acclaim, but only a small selection of recordings with the BSO for DG. a live recording of Bruckner 8 with Steinberg and the BSO, from 1972, was issued as part of the orchestra's Centennial Celebration set, and has been described as a 'good, well paced and powerful reading, well played by the Bostonians'. Steinberg leads this Bruckner 8 performance from memory and with great subtlety and distinction in a sympathetic interpretation that provoked a rapturous response from the Boston audience.

Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 in E Major, WAB 107 (Modified 1885

Venzago typically employs brisk tempos, transparent textures, distinctive brass and woodwind sonorities, and strings played with minimal vibrato. This is a fresh take on Bruckner's music, and Venzago avoids the excessive heaviness and reverence that many 20th century conductors imposed on his works. These streamlined readings may not persuade traditionalists, but the startling performances in this CPO box set may well change the way we think of these symphonies in the future. This ten-CD collection also includes a bonus DVD of Laurent Jaquet's film Venzago's Bruckner.

– All Music Guide

Classical Music

Classical Music

This incredible recording of Anton Bruckner’s Symphonie IX also includes a bonus disc with the Version for Two Pianos. Featuring the Altomonte Orchester St. Florian under the direction of Remy Ballot, this album is a live recording of the original version. Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony is, in the composer’s own words, “The loveliest thing that I [Bruckner] ever composed.” The work is dedicated to the “dear Lord” and is the composer’s personal confrontation with his journey into the afterlife. The transcription for two pianos was arranged by Klaus Laczika and Matthias Giesen using a transcription by Dr. Karl Grunsky (1911) and more closely aligning it to Bruckner’s original scoring in the way of dynamics and instrumentation.

Having won acclaim for his recent recordings of French repertoire, Robin Ticciati now turns to the music of Anton Bruckner. Ticciati is well suited to conducting Bruckner with an approach that is both 'expansive and revelatory' (The Guardian). Having already performed this work with the Bergen Philharmonic and Vienna Symphony Orchestras, Ticciati returned to Berlin to continue his recording series with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester. Bruckner broke new ground with his Sixth Symphony; it's meandering harmonies, intricate rhythms and imaginative instrumentation are coupled with contrasting moods and a theme that moves satisfyingly from dark to light. Occasionally overshadowed by the more familiar Fifth and Seventh symphonies, the Sixth has many extraordinary moments, including the astonishing Scherzo. Notably this was the first work that the self-doubting composer did not seek to revise. Ticciati describes this symphony as 'wild, daring and risky', a perfect pairing for this engaging and charismatic conductor.