I just can't get into Bruckner
Tue, Feb 26 2013, 12:28AM
#2
RE: I just can't get into Bruckner
PS: Writing your 'name' as DST, brings back memories of so many splendid quarterly reviews long ago, The Gramophone and the Voice, from DS-T, Desmond Shaw-Taylor.
I too had a double take. I've been overdosing on those retrospectives recently, Chris. They're worth the price of the digital edition and access to the archive alone.
Tue, Feb 26 2013, 1:01AM
#3
RE: I just can't get into Bruckner
Chris and JKH, I'm strangely touched - when I joined the forum I never thought my pseudonym might do that, and am now remembering the far-off times when I first read Gramophone. It's good to have called to mind a great music critic, however accidentally.
Tue, Feb 26 2013, 6:49AM
#4
RE: I just can't get into Bruckner
As with Wagner's various unpalatable views, you can't get away from the fact that Karajan was a member of the Nazi party. This surely must affect peoples' views when he takes on Jewish composers such as Mendelssohn or Mahler. In fact I feel slightly reluctant to put this down, but it is a case in point that needs to be made..
And Shostakovich joined the Communist Party - who killed more people, so he must be worse!
From his discography, and one of his wives being part-Jewish, I think we can dismiss the charge of antisemitism. The fact is that Karajan was a careerist. If it had been the Communists who took over Germany rather than the Nazis (and they did try), he would have signed up with them instead. I'm not sure I believe the story of him trying to send G Jochum to the front - how would a young conductor have that power? (And why would anyone want a conductor at the front?)
Re the Swarowski/Scholz 6th, I think Scholz may not have conducted it himself, but put his name on a radio recording by another conductor (some of the recordings under his name are "too good" to be attributed to a third-rater).
Tue, Feb 26 2013, 6:08AM
#5
RE: I just can't get into Bruckner
Brumas, I'm sure you won't receive any attack for what you said about Bruckner, but, for all it is worth (to you at least), I can fully associate myself with your post. Well said!
Parla
Two words: Sergiu Celibidache.
I agree Bruckner is not the easiest composer to get into. There's none of Mozart's melodic brilliance, or any of the drama of for instance Mahler. With Bruckner, somehow the architecture of the music seems to be the be all and end all. Celiidache's glacial tempi work wonders with that: give his rendition of the 8th a listen, pure magic.
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