Bruckner's Abbey

[Sergeant Rock]

This could be very good. New release from Bavarian radio:


http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product/NR_November10/900703.htm

Looks interesting. I saw Kubelik conduct the Eighth in1973 at Severance Hall in Cleveland and really enjoyed that concert.

Sarge   

[Daverz]

Looks interesting. I saw Kubelik conduct the Eighth in1973 at Severance Hall in Cleveland and really enjoyed that concert.

The Bruckner discography lists a 1973 Cleveland recording by Kubelik on a dodgy sounding label called Vibrato.

[jlaurson]

This could be very good. New release from Bavarian radio:


http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product/NR_November10/900703.htm

Came out early last year in a box. Not bad so far as the first impression was suffient... but need to give it another proper listen--maybe in conex. with Bolton's and Thielemann's recent 8th.

[Sergeant Rock]

The Bruckner discography lists a 1973 Cleveland recording by Kubelik on a dodgy sounding label called Vibrato.

According to the notes it was the Thursday performance (19/4/73). I was at Severance on Saturday. Still, it would be fun to track down that recording. Thanks for pointing this out.

Sarge

[Cato]

According to the notes it was the Thursday performance (19/4/73). I was at Severance on Saturday. Still, it would be fun to track down that recording. Thanks for pointing this out.

Sarge

That your memory is so precise shows that your memory is extremely good after 37 years, and that the performance was remarkable enough for it to remain vivid.

[Sergeant Rock]

That your memory is so precise shows that your memory is extremely good after 37 years

I wish    In fact it's easy to remember the day I attended concerts during the 72/73 season. It was always a Saturday. I reenlisted in October (after taking a year off to go back to college) and was stationed at Fort Knox. My wife remained in our hometown (about 40 miles south of Cleveland) in order to complete her third year of teaching. I drove home every Friday evening (arriving around 11 p.m.) and returned to the fort Sunday afternoons. The only day I could attend a Cleveland concert was Saturday; we went on average once a month.

'72 and '73 were great years for a Mahler/Bruckner fanatic to be in striking distance of Cleveland. In those two years the Cleveland Orchestra played Bruckner and Mahler symphonies nine times!

Feb 72   Bruckner 7 Barenboim
Apr 72   Mahler 1 Louis Lane
May 72  Bruckner 3 Ceccato
Sep 72  Mahler 6 Abbado
Nov 72  Mahler 2 Ormandy
Jan 73   Bruckner 9 Barenboim
Mar 73  Mahler 9 Haitink
Apr 73  Bruckner 8 Kubelik
Dec 73  Bruckner 5 Maazel

Sarge

[Brian]

Cross-posted from Super Bargains: Looking around, most of the praise for Gunter Wand's Bruckner focuses on his cycle with the NDR Orchestra, or his late recordings in Berlin. But the "super bargain" RCA box set (the whole cycle for 19 euros) features the WDR Orchestra, Cologne, not the NDR. Is there really a quality trade-off?

[MishaK]

This could be very good. New release from Bavarian radio:


http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product/NR_November10/900703.htm

Is this a different performance than the one that was issued on the Orfeo label?

[jlaurson]

Is this a different performance than the one that was issued on the Orfeo label?

Yes, it is.

A. Bruckner Symphony VIII Rafael Kubelik / BRSO 1963 Orfeo

A. Bruckner Symphony VIII Rafael Kubelik / BRSO 1977 BR Klassik

(A used copy of the '63 performance still cheaply available  from Germany here.)

The Orfeo recording is from November 8th, 1963,

the BR Klassik recording is from May 12th, 1977.

So the performances are from 2 years after Kubelik became the MD
of the BRSO and 2 years before he left the BRSO. Almost bookends,
if you will.

Except for the finale, which has about the same duration, the latter
performance is (in accordance with cliche) slower.

[Cato]

Kubelik was himself something of a composer of symphonies: does anyone know anything about them?

I wonder if they are descendants of the Bruckner or Mahler style, (or even the Bruckner-Mahler style     ) or follow the Czech school.

I recall that he was also "chased" from Chicago supposedly by hostile critics who liked neither his style nor his programming.

[karlhenning]

Kubelik was himself something of a composer of symphonies: does anyone know anything about them?

I had no idea.  Wikipedia is little more than a tease on this matter:

Among his compositions are five operas, a number of symphonies, three settings of the Requiem text, other choral works, and many works of chamber music.

[jlaurson]

Kubelik was himself something of a composer of symphonies: does anyone know anything about them?

I wonder if they are descendants of the Bruckner or Mahler style, (or even the Bruckner-Mahler style     ) or follow the Czech school.

I recall that he was also "chased" from Chicago supposedly by hostile critics who liked neither his style nor his programming.

Claudia Cassidy was her name (it lives in infamy among music critics)--and she mostly hated that he played so much contemporary music.

There is a DVD of Kubelik's life that is rather nice (I usually don't like those kind of DVDs much) -- and it includes some of his music.


Rafael Kubelik
A Portrait

[Cato]

Many thanks to JLaurson for the information on the Kubelik DVD!

That it contains some of his own music makes it now especially interesting!

[MishaK]

Many thanks to JLaurson for the information on the Kubelik DVD!

That it contains some of his own music makes it now especially interesting!

More importantly for this thread, it includes a very fine Bruckner 4 with the VPO.

This set:



besides containing an almost complete Beethoven cycle, some Hartmann, Gurrelieder and some other Kubelik rarities, also has a performance of Kubelik's quattro forme per archi.

The CSO used to have a "From the Archives" double CD dedicated to Kubelik, which also included a 1980 performance of his Sequences for orchestra. But it no longer seems to be available.

[MishaK]

Claudia Cassidy was her name (it lives in infamy among music critics)--and she mostly hated that he played so much contemporary music.

She hated Mahler, too. Kubelik conducted some CSO permieres(!) of Mahler symphonies.

Yes, it is.

Thanks for that clarification. I may have to seek that out. Kubelik's BRSO Bruckner 4 on Sony from late in his tenure is my absolute favorite Bruckner 4.

[Brahmsian]

This all-day Bruckner marathon has been incredibly rewarding.  AB is making all the right moves, like this guy! 

[DavidW]

I think I'll bug everyone again since that Karajan 7 recording was so awesome!

What is your favorite recording of the Bruckner 6 in modern sound?

[Brahmsian]

What is your favorite recording of the Bruckner 6 in modern sound?

I'd love to hear suggestions as well, since that really is the only remaining Bruckner symphony that I'm not overly enthusiastic about. 

[Brahmsian]

Just finishing listening to the 9th, and don't know why I hadn't noticed it before........Bruckner seems to quote from Wagner's Parsifal in the coda of Adagio.  Am I right?

[DavidW]

I'd love to hear suggestions as well, since that really is the only remaining Bruckner symphony that I'm not overly enthusiastic about. 

I hope you're not ranking #00 and 0 above #6.