Bruckner's Symphony No 2
A magnificent performance of this rarely heard symphony from Giulini
The Gramophone Choice
Symphony No 2 (1877 Nowak edition)
Vienna Symphony Orchestra / Carlo Maria Giulini
Testament SBT1210 (59‘ · ADD). Recorded 1974. Buy from Amazon
Perhaps the greatest of all recordings of the work, spacious, involved, profoundly human. So persuasive is Giulini’s interpretation, it makes it almost impossible to take seriously the attempt at a more detached, monumental approach found in Daniel Barenboim’s more recent Teldec performance. Giulini’s ability to convey fervour without sentimentality is little short of miraculous, and it’s clear from the way the early stages of the first movement effortlessly project an ideal balance between the lyrical and the dramatic that this reading will be exceptional. The recording might not have the dynamic range of current digital issues, and resonance can sound rather artificial in louder passages. There’s also an obtrusive extension of the trumpet triplets seven bars before the end of the first movement. But such things count for less than nothing in the face of a performance which culminates in a finale of such glowing spontaneity you could almost believe that the orchestra are playing it for the first time, and that neither they (nor any other orchestra) will ever play it better.
A fuller and more authentic text of the symphony is available at super-bargain price in Georg Tintner’s fine account of the 1872 edition (on Naxos; reviewed below). Serious collectors will need both. Yet the last thing you’re likely to feel after hearing Giulini is that there’s something inauthentic about this Bruckner. Matters musicological fade to vanishing point, given such communicative genius.
Additional Recommendation
Symphony No 2 (ed Carragan)
National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland / Georg Tintner
Naxos 8 554006 (71‘ · DDD). Buy from Amazon
This exceptional recording by veteran Austrian conductor Georg Tintner is in a league of its own. It’s a beautifully shaped performance, characterfully played and vividly recorded. What’s more, it is in effect a gramophone ‘first’, for though the original, 1872 version of Bruckner’s Second Symphony has been recorded elsewhere, this is the first to reach a wider market. Not that the differences between editions are hugely significant. What the earlier 1872 version principally offers is the reversal of the order of the two inner movements (the Scherzo now comes before the Andante), a full clutch of repeats in the Scherzo and Trio, a rather longer development section in the finale, various small changes to the orchestration and the absence of some of the more meretricious tempo markings. What’s appealing about the ‘full monty’ is the feeling it gives of the symphony’s Schubertian pedigree: heavenly length joining hands with a deep sense of melancholy and melodic Angst. Which brings us to Tintner’s reading of the symphony, which is shrewd and affectionate, tellingly phrased and beautifully paced, the moves away from and back to the basic pulse nicely handled. This is Bruckner conducting of the old school. There’s also something reassuringly old-fashioned about the playing of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. The entire orchestra has the character of a well-to-do country cousin who’s blessedly innocent of the more tiresome aspects of metropolitan life. This is an exceptional recording.
