Bruckner's Symphony No 5
Bruckner's Fifth elucidated by a superb introductory talk
The Gramophone Choice
Philharmonia Orchestra / Benjamin Zander
Telarc 2CD80706 (149’ · DDD). Includes bonus disc of Benjamin Zander discussing Bruckner Symphony No 5. Buy from Amazon
Yet another Bruckner Fifth? Not exactly. The performance, which has its own distinction, comes with an 80-minute bonus disc of unusual quality and interest. Not since the halcyon days of Antony Hopkins ‘Talking About Music’ has there been a commentary as lucid, as approachable and yet as musically satisfying as this.
Devised by Zander and his co-producer David St George, it is a multifaceted essay. Mapping the symphony has pride of place and is superbly done. It also thrives on a rich array of music examples tucked with consummate skill in, around and beneath the narrative.
Another distinctive touch is his breathing new life into the old cathedral analogy. The CD comes with a foldaway leaflet. On one side is a cathedral floor-plan, on the other the structure of the Fifth Symphony laid over that same plan. Nor does Zander stop there. His profound and often moving remarks on time, space, spiritual struggle and spiritual renewal grow naturally out of this.
His trump card is his father Walter Zander, who died in 1993 at the age of 95. In the summer of 1918, while fighting on the Russian front, Walter was sent a score of Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony by his mother. His letters home with their comments on what the music meant to him have only recently reappeared. These, too, have been woven into the narrative, and very remarkable they are.
Despite his father’s urging, Zander did not study the symphony until he was past 60. Antony Hopkins once said that some of his best scripts were written on works he knew little about before writing. Zander seems to have been similarly blessed, creating a remarkable narrative and complementing it with a performance of great lucidity and drive. If the finely geared playing seems a touch lightweight in places, turning up the level of the beautifully judged Watford Coliseum recording helps bulk out the vertical dimension.
Additional Recommendation
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra / Nikolaus Harnoncourt
RCA Red Seal 82876 60749-2 (73’ · DDD/DSD) Recorded live 2004. Buy from Amazon
Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s Fifth is more a realisation than an interpretation, musically vivid but spiritually serene. Serene but not slow. By the clock, this is one of the quickest Fifths on record, though only the Adagio is taken more swiftly than usual. It was here that Bruckner began the symphony, in the pit of despair in 1875, with a keening oboe melody he marked Sehr langsam but scored alla breve. Harnoncourt treats it allegretto after the manner of a threnody by Bach or Mozart, whose Requiem is quoted during the course of the movement. Furtwängler, surprisingly, took a similar view of the movement.
The ‘liveness’ of the live performance owes much to Harnoncourt – his persona fuelling the music-making not the concept, which is as it should be – though the superlative playing of the Vienna Philharmonic is also a factor. The light-fingered realisation of the exquisite string traceries is a constant source of wonder; tuttis are glowing and unforced. The hall of the Musikverein helps, too; with an audience present it offers a uniquely natural-sounding Bruckner acoustic. This is a performance of rare vision and strength.
