My East Coast Brucknerathon Report (LONG)
Sol L. Siegel
the reasoning of the First East Coast Brucknerathon in Simsbury, CT on
Saturday last (Sept. 5). About 20 attendees, from the area from
Boston, from Jersey, from Texas (flights to Hartford were from there
were about a third the price of a flight from Philly) and even the UK
sat and girded their metaphorical loins for the fray. John Berky (I
assume) provided most of the music, while Ken and Ruth Jacobson
graciously provided the listening room, equipment, chow, brew (well,
we did have to pay for that) and hospitality. Ken Ward, editor of the
Bruckner Journal (he was the UK participant) handed out Bruckner
cloisonne pins. Perhaps 15 of us were actually there in time for the
8 AM start.
Here's my assessment of the music. Most of these recordings will be
difficult, if not impossible, for the average RCMRer to get their
hands on, but I simply couldn't resist. I never can, can I?
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Symphony in F minor, a.k.a. "Study-Symphony" (1863): Dong-Ho Lee /
Jeju Philharmonic (Korea) (2008 - part of a largely self-recorded
complete cycle). A rough-and-ready live rendition of a rough-and-ready
symphony. Lee wisely looked backward, at Schubert, Beethoven,
Mendelssohn and Schumann, rather than forward at the mature Bruckner.
It was fun, only made more so by an ensemble that seemed to be
chugging, "I think I can, I think I can" as it went along.
Symphony No. 1 in C minor (1866 Linz / Ed. Carragan): Georg Tintner /
Scottish National Orchestra (Naxos). When the program was announced,
I wished they would start with this one - it would have been out of
order, but I own it, and I could have slept another hour. But that
would have been distinctly impolite to William Carragan, who was there
to help explicate differences between his and later editions of the
early symphonies, and even supplied printed comparisons. (By the end
of the weekend he was allowing me to call him Bill; I wonder if that
will survive this posting.) There's nothing wrong with the recording,
of course. Tintner managed to give the work a little extra gravity
without losing its youthful (at 42?) drive, and it's nice to hear the
little cuts opened up.
Symphony in D minor, a.k.a. "Die Nullte" or "No. 0" (1869): Gennadi
Rozhdestvensky / USSR Ministry of Culture Orchestra (BMG CD) (1983). A
hell-for-leather performance by not only the first conductor to record
all 11, but who taped nearly all the then-available versions. One
listener joked, "Too bad they couldn't play it any faster." My joke
was that the engineer betrayed the great tradition of Soviet tape
editing: I couldn't detect a single moment in which it sounded like
they switched halls in mid-phrase.
Symphony No. 2 in C minor (1872 Edition / Ed. Carragan): Herbert
Blomstedt / Montreal Symphony Orchestra (2007). I really, really wish
there was some way you could purchase this one, a concert that
wouldn't even have been recorded if Carragan, who was there, hadn't
insisted on it. The early Bruckners, and especially this one, are at
least as much about the struggles behind their own creation as about
Bruckner's struggles with God, the universe and anything else, and
this first version of the 2nd Symphony - before the cuts, and the
rewriting to make it more in the style of his later works, or the
return of the scherzo to the third-movement position - exposes this
more than anything. Then there's the performance, which is
edge-of-the-seat thrilling and darned near crazy. (One would scarcely
believe it the work of an 80-year-old conductor!) This was the
biggest revelation of the day for me.
Symphony No. 3 in D minor (1874 version / Ed. Carragan): Akira Naito /
Tokyo New City Orchestra (2009). The year after Bruckner dedicated
this symphony to Wagner, condemning him to intemperate critical attack
by the Brahmsians for the rest of his life, he polished the score,
making a few small cuts but leaving in the Wagner quotes. He
supposedly said he was happy with this version, but it's never been
heard until now. But there's a big problem with this one-off live
recording - the brass flat-out missed their last entrance in the first
movement, and the rehearsal recording failed. So this recording,
which was supposed to appear in Naito's series of rare Bruckner
editions for the Japanese Delta label will remain on the shelf for the
time being at least. The rest of the performance? Not bad, but not
so great that I won't hope for someone else to quickly pick up the
ball that Naito's brass section dropped.
Symphony No. 4 in E-flat (1878/80 Nowak Ed.): Giuseppe Sinopoli /
Philharmonia Orchestra (1988 NHK DVD). Due to a family emergency,
Benjamin Korstvedt had to cancel his appearance to talk about his
edition of the 1888 score, so it was decided at the last minute to
substitute this Japanese video of the standard Nowak with the visiting
Philharmonia. Beautifully played and all that, but after the
craziness of the previous few hours it seemed pretty tame. There were
titles, mostly in Japanese but sometimes in Chinese or Korean, that
sometimes appeared during the music, proclaiming the names of
orchestra and conductor; I could not resist making my own
interpretations, such as "Take courage, the movement will soon be
over" or "This is really Michael Keaton wearing a false beard, wig and
spectacles."
Symphony No. 5 in B-flat (1878 Nowak Ed.): Heinz Roegner / Berlin
Symphony Orchestra (1984) (Berlin Classics CD). At dinner the evening
before a vote was taken between this and Van Beinum; this won because
it's faster. In fact, at 68:26 it's the fastest 1878 Bruckner 5th on
disc, even faster than the wartime Furtwangler. It's more evenly
paced than that loony performance, but the finale is as wild a ride as
you could imagine. Perhaps wilder than you would believe he could get
away with, really.
Symphony No. 6 in A (Hynais Edition): Ira Levin / Norrlands Opera
Orchestra (2008) (Lindoro CD). This derives from the 1899 Doblinger
edition, the work's first publication, and it's the first recording
thereof since that of that recording pioneer F. Charles Adler. It was
included in this survey because of recent research suggesting that
Bruckner had more input into this edition than previously thought. The
changes consist of a few odd (sometimes very odd) crescendos,
diminuendos, accelerandos and ritardandos. Carragan wasn't convinced
by any of the dynamic changes. For my part there was one crescendo
just as the big theme was entering in the finale that ruins the
effect. Too bad. On the whole, Levin knows his way around the score,
the orchestra plays well, and the recorded sound was about the best I
heard all day, with excellent balances and instrumental placement.
Symphony No. 7 in E (Gutmann Ed., w. percussion in Adagio): Eugen
Jochum / Concertgebouw Orchestra (1986 - Tokyo) (Altus DVD). Live
from the Gunze Music Festival, a score that Jochum and the orchestra
could do in their sleep, separately or together - but they didn't. (In
Jochum's case, there would be time enough for sleep, and soon.) Yes,
the first movement and scherzo are a little slow. And the Adagio is
*way* too slow. But watching the sepulchral (and seated) Jochum as he
coaxes every detail from an orchestral he's been conducting for half a
century is an indelible sight. The finale? Spot-on, the little stops
and restarts perfectly judged. And then the capper: after the last
downbeat, as the audience is starting to go wild, Jochum playfully
sticks his tongue out at the orchestra! Wonderful.
Symphony No. 8 in C minor (Haas Ed., 1890): Takashi Asahina / Osaka
Philharmonic (2001) (Exton DVD). After a desperately needed dinner
break (Italian buffet), we regrouped for a completely new experience:
a hard-to-find-in-the-US DVD of a concert performance of a late
Bruckner symphony by a white-haired conductor in the final year of his
life. Facetiousness aside, this did make for an interesting contrast
to Jochum. The main difference is that Asahina, in what little I've
experienced of his work, did as good a job of keeping his ego hidden
as any conductor I know of. (This makes the video production, which
sometimes makes him look like a god towering over the orchestra
through clever superimpositions, seem rather disingenuous.) The
orchestra isn't the Concertgebouw, especially in the strings, but
plays well enough in a straightforward 8th that somehow manages to be
rather more.
Symphony No. 9 in D minor (Nowak Ed.): Fabio Luisi / Dresden
Staatskapelle (2007) (Sony CD) - followed by Mvt. 4 (2006 Carragan
Completion): Akira Naito / Tokyo New City Orchestra (Delta CD). The
Luisi, lauded in Europe but unavailable in the US, clocks in at nearly
64 minutes, which surprised me because it seems faster. It's almost
frighteningly confrontational, and except for a handful of
inexplicable slowdowns, including one right near the end of the first
movement, avoids the tendency to overinterpret that's been running
rampant in classical performance for the past several decades. The
orchestra plays like the heroes of Valhalla, and the SACD sound is
pretty effective.
We finished off our total Bruckner experience by adding Carragan's
third (he's revised it again since, and it's being played in Arizona
this fall) completion of the finale. After hearing recordings of
earlier Carragan and SPCM attempts, I've been convinced that the
greatest value of Bruckner 9 completions is to try to get musicians
and perhaps conductors as well, to rethink their approaches to the
three completed movements. (Whatever you think of the material
Bruckner left behind - that which wasn't stolen by autograph seekers
that is - it requires different tempo decisions to make it "match up",
just for starters.) This new recording doesn't exactly change my
mind, but Bill's coda is so ecstatic that I wouldn't want to do
without it. So we went "Bravo Bill!" before saying our goodnights and
thank-yous and trying to find our homes and hotels on strange roads
near midnight.
- Sol L. Siegel, Philadelphia, PA USA
Matthew�B.�Tepper
to be typed in news:o7hba5t2ekqtoo2cj...@4ax.com:
> In fact, at 68:26 it's the fastest 1878 Bruckner 5th on disc, even faster
> than the wartime Furtwangler.
Eh? My copy of the Furtw�ngler, on DGG 427 774-2, times out at 1:07:55.
--
Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks!
Read about "Proty" here: http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/proty.html
To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion
Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of my employers
Lionel Tacchini
> Sol L. Siegel <vod...@aol.com> appears to have caused the following letters
>
> > In fact, at 68:26 it's the fastest 1878 Bruckner 5th on disc, even faster
> > than the wartime Furtwangler.
>
For some inexplicable reason, I never got to hear Rögner's recording
of the 5th.
But since we are looking at fast tempi in this work, one should
mention Naito's recently issued performance of a slightly different
version taking 64 mn (without significant cuts - at least I did not
notice any) and of course there is the almost legendary recording of a
1964 concert in which Frederick Prausnitz conducted the complete 1878
version in 60:30 (with a surprisingly slow 2nd mvt ...).
Lionel Tacchini
Sol L. Siegel
news:Xns9C804D9F817...@216.168.3.30:
> Sol L. Siegel <vod...@aol.com> appears to have caused the following
> letters to be typed in
> news:o7hba5t2ekqtoo2cj...@4ax.com:
>
>> In fact, at 68:26 it's the fastest 1878 Bruckner 5th on disc, even
>> faster than the wartime Furtwangler.
>
> Eh? My copy of the Furtw�ngler, on DGG 427 774-2, times out at
> 1:07:55.
>
You're right! I got my info from the abruckner.com website; I'll have
to write John Berky about this.
--
Sol L. Siegel
Update: The www.abruckner.com website discography has been corrected
accordingly, on this and several other DG releases of the 28 October
1942 performance. Good eyes, Matthew.