Historic Bruckner downloads
Thu, May 9 2013, 9:03PM
#2
RE: Historic Bruckner downloads
... my favourite Bruckner VII of all is a live performance with Hans Knappertsbusch and the VPO from Salzburg in 1949, a lovely warm hearted performance in more than acceptable sound, with a stunning climax at the heart of the Adagio - however, this is more stately, more "modern" reading than Bohm's earlier one.
All I know of Kna's Bruckner is that mangled 3rd from the aforementioned Centurion Classics box, which makes you wonder what he was smoking when he made that recording. Didn't leave me wanting for more, but I admire Kna in Wagner (Parsifal!) and if you say his 7th is so good, I should give it a chance then.
My personal favorite 7th is Furtwängler's 1949 BPO version - recorded in excellent sound and much better in every way than his more well-known 1951 Cairo recording.
Böhm's Bruckner I only know from his later Decca records (3, 4 and 7) with the VPO, which are among my favorites for those symphonies (in the 4th I've got a slight perference for Klemperer, in the 3rd it's Böhm by default, if we're talking the 1889 version. There's not many 3rds that I find satisfying, which is partly the music's fault. In Jochum's Dresden cycle, the 3rd is the least convincing too).
As is what we have of Karajan's 1944 recording of the Bruckner VIII with the Berlin Staatskapelle, with its "lost" first movement - in fact this is remarkably similar to any of Karajan's later readings of the work. TJH also mentions Furtwangler's highly individual and extremely volatile 1942 Bruckner V, but nine years later with the VPO in 1951, he turns in a performance less extreme, more steady.
I listened to Georg Ludwig Jochum's 1944 5th again today, and my amazement keeps growing. It's a performance that pushes all the right buttons with me, I'm inclined to call it my favorite 5th (sorry Klemperer).
It's strange how Furt's re-recordings of his familiar repertoire in the 50's mostly fail to convince me. Take his famous Schubert 9th from 1951, it's much more steady and stolid than his amazing wartime performance. Also Beethoven 9th (1943 vs. 1951 and 1954 - though I've got to admit that I wouldn't always want to listen to the apocalyptic 1943 version; Bayreuth 1951 and Luzerne 1954 are more balanced and ultimately more rewarding.)
HvK's 1944 8th is amazing allright... the recording, that is. Same with the Gieseking Beethoven 5th concerto (stunning stereo complete with the booms from the air raids), you keep wondering about the detailed recording and forget the qualities of the performance. I gotta say I was expecting something more "wild" from early HvK. The 8th finale sounded more in line with his later work indeed: tending towards the more monumental, sonorous and (to me) boring.
With the Second Symphony, the Gramophone Choice of Giulini on Testament is probably a wise one - he, like Horst Stein, points out the debt Bruckner owed to Weber rather than Wagner.
Guilini's 2nd I found rather disappointing, mainstream in every way. I guess it got a lot of publicity in its day because a big name conductor chose the least known Bruckner symphony for his Bruckner debut. I got to admit I'm not a big fan of Guilini's later B. recordings either. In symphonies 1-2 I find Eugen Jochum's Berlin recordings very good (Dresden to a lesser extend). But maybe his brother Georg's pioneering 2nd from 1944 is the best of all - and he made a great 1st to with the Rias Berlin in 1951. It's a great shame that this genius conductor didn't even leave a complete cycle, let alone one in stereo sound... (there must be some stereo recordings buried in radio archives - worth investigating, I bet.)
As I get older, I too prefer a bit more fire in my Eighths than Sinopoli offers - I found the Barbirolli performance let down somewhat by his orchestra though; even better, marrying fire and grandeur with fine execution, is van Beinum's 1955 recording on Philips - another one of those forgotten "greats" from the past !
LD1
Barbirolli's 8th has what I think is the finest first movement ever recorded - amazing in every way, even the orchestral playing is much more than just adequate. The coda is breathtaking - here the symphony truly deserves its apocryphal nickname "apocalyptic". The scherzo is very fine too, but then The Hallé players get a bit lost in the massive proportions of the adagio and finale. It's still a great performance overall, but for fire that continues into the last two movements, I chose Schuricht's 1963 VPO recording.
I'll check out the Van Beinum - thanks again for the tip!
Sat, May 11 2013, 9:29PM
#3
RE: Historic Bruckner downloads
Hi Parla
And apologies for my delayed response. I think Robert Haas began work on behalf of the International Bruckner Society in the 1930's with tidying up Bruckner's symphonic scores, his work continued after the war by Leopold Nowak, often producing "definitive" editions of the same symphony (the Eighth, for example). As I'm sure you know, old Hans Knappertsbusch was somewhat remiss with rehearsing, so it is of no surprise to learn he similarly not so keen on relearning scores ! I think one of the reasons why I like the above-mentioned Bruckner 7 so much from 1949 is because this symphony (spurious cymbals and triangles aside) is perhaps one of the least troubled when it comes to editions. That said, I've also heard a Bruckner IX with this conductor and the BPO, which was quite awful (because of the edition used) - those two enormous climaxes near the beginning of the Adagio were both treated as crescendos ! This is strange really since it was the Ninth which was the first of the Nine to be "cleaned up" (by Orel in 1932). As to my own personal preferences, well pre-Haas doesn't sound right to my ears. With the Third though, the 1889/90 version, long discredited, somehow provokes the most electrifying performances - Karajan, Szell and Knappertsbusch all reign supreme for me in this symphony, a case of heart over mind really !
LD1
Sat, May 11 2013, 9:50PM
#4
RE: Historic Bruckner downloads
Thank you 50M for your most detailed and informative reply above.
As mentioned to Parla earlier, Knappertsbusch can be a bit hit and miss with Bruckner (for me, at any rate). That Seventh is quite wonderful though and, if you can find it, is another Third, this time a studio taping with the Vienna PO (I'm not sure if it is available in this country - I bought mine on a Japanese import many years ago). To be avoided are live recordings of the Eighth and Ninth whose texts are pre-Haas and quite awful (unless you are interested in the early editions as well, complete with hairpin crescendos and loads of cymbal clashes !). There's also that Decca studio Fifth - the Vienna PO sound wonderful, Decca reproduce it all magnificently and Kna conducts well, but.... the edition used is awful ! I think the finale is on Youtube, so you can sample it.
I have to be in the right mood for Furtwangler these days, although that live Ninth with the Berlin PO is one of the greatest tapings of this work ever. I do take your point about the difference between Furtwangler during the war and after - did you know he was born only a few months of Otto Klemperer ? Now how would have history been different had Furtwangler also lived until 1973 like Klemperer .....
I'm going to have to revisit Barbirolli's Eighth now, due to your own diehard veneration ! I have to confess and say I didn't think much of it at all - my memory tells me this was a second-half of a concert featuring the Nielsen Fifth before the interval and if correct, I'm not surprised the players sound so tired by the end !! One Eighth which did catch me out recently was Janowski's with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande - the other instalments from this series haven't really impressed me, but this Eighth was superb. Okay, I would normally have preferred a bit more weight and heft from my orchestra than the OSR are able to provide, but Janowski's swift pacing and masterly handling of transitions is quite something - as is the sound ! Recommended !!
LD1
LD, how true is the allegation that Knappertsbusch used dubious or even discredited editions of Bruckner Symphonies? By the way, do you prefer the original versions of his Symphonies?
Parla