Bruckner reviews

The Benedictine Abbey of Ottobeuren forms an imposing backdrop for this gripping account. Outstanding brass playing from the Concertgebouw and Jochum’s sure-footed structural control creates a mesmerising experience.

Erik Levi

Might this be the start of a complete cycle of Bruckner symphonies from the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Andris Nelsons? On the strength of this I very much hope so. The orchestra is still one with a characteristic sound: warm strings and incisive woodwind, rounded and, when necessary, powerful brass. Interesting that Nelsons has started with this symphony, which Deryck Cooke rightly describes as ‘Bruckner’s least perfect but not least magnificent symphony’.

Bruckner may well have known what he was doing when he revised his Symphony No. 1 in 1890-91, a decade and a half after he composed it. The CD note describes this later ‘Vienna’ version as ‘perfection on the basis of experience’. But after hearing this clearly dedicated performance, I’m still left wishing he’d never touched it. The earlier ‘Linz’ version is a lively, quirky, audacious and very attractive post-Mendelssohnian symphony. I can imagine it appealing to people to find the later symphonies indigestible.

Daniel Jaffé

This recording is of a concert given last year in Vienna’s Musikverein. It shows among other things that the Tonkünstler Orchestra can hold its own with any other orchestra playing Bruckner, and that Yutaka Sado, not very well known in this country, is a fine, perceptive conductor of what I find the most problematic of Bruckner’s symphonies. For a long time the Fourth was the most popular of his works, but that may have done his reputation more harm than good. The opening is magical, the horn call over the trademark string tremolandos.

This is the second time in seven years that this symphony, conducted by Christian Thielemann, has appeared on DVD and Blu-Ray. The previous issue, with the Munich Philharmonic, has it coupled with the Seventh (reviewed August 2010). This new performance, part of the complete Bruckner cycle with the marvellous Staatskapelle Dresden, sounds gorgeous but seems strangely devoid of direction and meaning. The disc raises the interesting question of how valuable it is to watch as opposed to just hearing.

This is the second time in seven years that this symphony, conducted by Christian Thielemann, has appeared on DVD and Blu-Ray. The previous issue, with the Munich Philharmonic, has it coupled with the Seventh (reviewed August 2010). This new performance, part of the complete Bruckner cycle with the marvellous Staatskapelle Dresden, sounds gorgeous but seems strangely devoid of direction and meaning. The disc raises the interesting question of how valuable it is to watch as opposed to just hearing.

‘No lover of this symphony will be content with less than half a dozen recordings, and this should undoubtedly be among them’ 

Bruckner

Symphony No. 8 (1890 version)

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Mariss Jansons

BR Klassik 900165   80:07 mins