Bruckner's Abbey

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

That being said, I wouldn't rush to buy a Bruckner symphony under Gergiev. He certainly made some excellent recordings, but often he either misses the mark or simply sounds not wholly committed. I would try to hear extended samples first.

If I had to name one conductor whose fame is inexplicable, it would be Gergiev. Makes Abbado look like Toscanini.

[André]

Agreed. His Prokofiev and Mahler symphony cycles left me wanting for more bite and character. I never had the feeling he could fire up the orchestra out of its comfort zone. His Shostakovich 7th with the combined Rotterdam and Kirov orchestras OTOH is quite good.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Agreed. His Prokofiev and Mahler symphony cycles left me wanting for more bite and character. I never had the feeling he could fire up the orchestra out of its comfort zone. His Shostakovich 7th with the combined Rotterdam and Kirov orchestras OTOH is quite good.

Someone I know in the music biz claimed he is essentially a fraud. The performance is prepared entirely by assistance conductors and he shows up at the last minute to wave the baton. I can't say I have any direct knowledge.

I remember liking a recording of Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet on Philips. Everything else has been a disappointment.

[Jo498]

The Prokofiev Piano Concertos with Toradze are slow but very powerful and overall quite impressive (this may be my only Gergiev recording...).

[Draško]

I like quite a few Gergiev recordings but it's all Russian repertoire and all with Mariinsky/Kirov Orchestra.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Someone I know in the music biz claimed he is essentially a fraud. The performance is prepared entirely by assistance conductors and he shows up at the last minute to wave the baton. I can't say I have any direct knowledge.

I remember liking a recording of Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet on Philips. Everything else has been a disappointment.

No, he's certainly not. He might be part quack, he may be tiresome, he may be all kinds of things. But he's an insanely hard worker; he's got his Mariinsky Orchestra under total control and he CAN create some extraordinary musical experiences. And he's a very quick learner; his Wagner used to be loathsome (I witnessed a dreadful Parsifal in concert); five years later his recording was quite good; his Walkuere is excellent. His early Brucker with Munich, including the above-discussed Fourth was very ho-hum and pointless... but recent Bruckner performances were rather notable. His style tends to wear off on non-Mariisnky Orchestras after a while, but even there he can galvanize them into really spectacular performances. Admittedly, much of his output I don't find very interesting. But the best is truly worth listening to.

[Cato]

No, he's certainly not. He might be part quack, he may be tiresome, he may be all kinds of things. But he's an insanely hard worker; he's got his Mariinsky Orchestra under total control and he CAN create some extraordinary musical experiences.

I really like his work with Rimsky-Korsakov's The Invisible City of Kitezh.

[asin]B00002DF33[/asin]

[Daverz]

I really like his work with Rimsky-Korsakov's The Invisible City of Kitezh.

[asin]B00002DF33[/asin]

On the other hand, I thought his conducting in Prokofiev's War & Peace was rather soggy compared to Rostropovich.  But that's a very old recording.  I was, howver, very impressed by the Philips Rite of Spring, another old recording.

We should probably get back to Bruckner...

This transfer got a very positive review on MW:

[asin] B0040T7COE[/asin]

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2018/Oct/Bruckner_sy8_MC109.htm

It does sound sweet, but I have yet to compare it to the Music & Arts transfer.  Tidal link:

https://tidal.com/album/46540717

[SurprisedByBeauty]

I really like his work with Rimsky-Korsakov's The Invisible City of Kitezh.

That's a great one!

These are other Gergiev recordings I think are either v.good or downright great:

Rheingold / Mariinsky

Romeo & J. / LSO

Tchaik 1-3, LSO (underrated) Best coupled with the Vienna late Tchaik.

"Kirov" Rite of Spring

Nutcracker

Sheherazade

DSCH, The Nose

Mahler 5 (his best in that cycle)

Fiery Angel

Kancheli: Styx

Scriabin 1 & 2

Scriabin 3 & 4 Not as good as Muti but 2nd-best Scriabin Cycle

Ivan the Terrible

Prokofiev PCs

[Que]

This transfer got a very positive review on MW:

[asin] B0040T7COE[/asin]

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2018/Oct/Bruckner_sy8_MC109.htm

It does sound sweet, but I have yet to compare it to the Music & Arts transfer.  Tidal link:

https://tidal.com/album/46540717

I own that recording, and can concur on the sound quality! 

I'm in general not a fan of Music & Arts' approach.

[Cato]

I came across this by chance:

Simone Young conducting the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in the Sixth Symphony :

https://www.youtube.com/v/LRi6DwywmOE&feature=share

[calyptorhynchus]

I came across this by chance:

Simone Young conducting the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in the Sixth Symphony :

https://www.youtube.com/v/LRi6DwywmOE&feature=share

Not wanting to be unfair to the conductor... however i couldn't help thinking of this as a good example of a conductor trying to make Bruckner dramatic instead of simply conducting the music and letting the drama in the music emerge.

[André]

From the WAYL thread.

This is Nagano's second recording of the 8th symphony. In 2005 he recorded the familiar revised version (1890, ed. Haas) with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, Berlin. At 89 minutes it was about 10 minutes slower than the average interpretation. On his second attempt in 2009 the conductor chose the different, longer, original version from 1887. The extra material is handled in the same way, meaning that the timing of this Munich concert is close to 100 minutes, the longest in the discography - save for a couple of Celibidache performances.

It is quite daring of Nagano to adopt such a spacious view of the work. Tempo markings in the adagio specify feierlich langsam doch nicht schleppend - solemn and slow but without dragging. The wonder is that it does not schlepp even at over 33 minutes. When he conducts in Germany Nagano is often on the slow side compared to his north american performances. He takes advantage of the germanic orchestral tradition, founded on solid, full, low string sound and softer attacks. The vocabulary may be the same, but the speech pattern is quite different. In Bruckner that also means more time to shape long musical paragraphs and cadential phrases. Pauses are longer, too. IOW the music's breathing is very different. It's a totally distinctive reality and I'm glad I can experience it.

[JBS]

No, he's certainly not. He might be part quack, he may be tiresome, he may be all kinds of things. But he's an insanely hard worker; he's got his Mariinsky Orchestra under total control and he CAN create some extraordinary musical experiences. And he's a very quick learner; his Wagner used to be loathsome (I witnessed a dreadful Parsifal in concert); five years later his recording was quite good; his Walkuere is excellent. His early Brucker with Munich, including the above-discussed Fourth was very ho-hum and pointless... but recent Bruckner performances were rather notable. His style tends to wear off on non-Mariisnky Orchestras after a while, but even there he can galvanize them into really spectacular performances. Admittedly, much of his output I don't find very interesting. But the best is truly worth listening to.

Okay, I received Gergiev's B4 today, and played it right away.
On the whole, I like it.
O'Hanlon was correct in saying there is no cosmic mystery here, no great drama.
Thing is, in Gergiev's hands B4 is a totally different thing. It is a very genial reading, bucolic. The horn's are those of a huntsman, and the finale shows us the huntsman returning with enough meat to skin, salt, and feed his family for the coming winter months, welcomed by his family with a hearty meal and a jug of ale.

Okay, maybe that is a little overpoetic, but it's the image my mind produced. If you want a less poetic description, Gergiev's B4 is not the composer contemplating the Four Last Things or similar. It's the composer thinking of the countryside in which he grew up.

[Daverz]

Okay, I received Gergiev's B4 today, and played it right away.
On the whole, I like it.
O'Hanlon was correct in saying there is no cosmic mystery here, no great drama.
Thing is, in Gergiev's hands B4 is a totally different thing. It is a very genial reading, bucolic. The horn's are those of a huntsman, and the finale shows us the huntsman returning with enough meat to skin, salt, and feed his family for the coming winter months, welcomed by his family with a hearty meal and a jug of ale.

Okay, maybe that is a little overpoetic, but it's the image my mind produced. If you want a less poetic description, Gergiev's B4 is not the composer contemplating the Four Last Things or similar. It's the composer thinking of the countryside in which he grew up.

Have you heard the Kertesz?  I'd also call that genial rather than cosmic or mystical.

[asin] B009MP8KP6[/asin]

[JBS]

Have you heard the Kertesz?  I'd also call that genial rather than cosmic or mystical.

[asin] B009MP8KP6[/asin]

No, I have not. But I just ordered it, so I will be soon enough.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

From the WAYL thread.

This is Nagano's second recording of the 8th symphony. In 2005 he recorded the familiar revised version (1890, ed. Haas) with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, Berlin. At 89 minutes it was about 10 minutes slower than the average interpretation. On his second attempt in 2009 the conductor chose the different, longer, original version from 1887. The extra material is handled in the same way, meaning that the timing of this Munich concert is close to 100 minutes, the longest in the discography - save for a couple of Celibidache performances.

It is quite daring of Nagano to adopt such a spacious view of the work. Tempo markings in the adagio specify feierlich langsam doch nicht schleppend - solemn and slow but without dragging. The wonder is that it does not schlepp even at over 33 minutes. When he conducts in Germany Nagano is often on the slow side compared to his north american performances. He takes advantage of the germanic orchestral tradition, founded on solid, full, low string sound and softer attacks. The vocabulary may be the same, but the speech pattern is quite different. In Bruckner that also means more time to shape long musical paragraphs and cadential phrases. Pauses are longer, too. IOW the music's breathing is very different. It's a totally distinctive reality and I'm glad I can experience it.

I was at that concert. It wasn't AS impressive there -- but I do like the recording. His Ninth, in concert, however, was very special along the same lines. pre-Coupled with Bernd Alois Zimmermann's "Stille & Umkehr". Real 'space music':

http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2010/12/magnificent-isnt-quite-right-word.html

[SurprisedByBeauty]

My first CD from Hell:

Latest on @classicstoday: On paper, this is great: Bruckner rarities and a favorite artist! The pianism is faultless. But it's a #CDfromHell!

[Cato]

My first CD from Hell:

Latest on @classicstoday: On paper, this is great: Bruckner rarities and a favorite artist! The pianism is faultless. But it's a #CDfromHell!

SO...what does that mean?! 

[SurprisedByBeauty]

SO...what does that mean?!

That's called, if you are generous, a teaser.  (Not quite clickbait, because there actually IS something waiting at the other side that makes sense of this.)