Bruckner's Abbey

[Daverz]

Some votes:

1: Neumann/Leipzig
2: Stein; Sieghart/Bruckner Linz
3: Schuricht/EMI
4: Klemperer/BRSO; Karajan/EMI
5: Karajan (surprised no votes for it)
6: Celibidache/EMI (come on, this is the blind listening test winner!)
7: Karajan/EMI; Rosbaud
9: Schuricht/EMI

[Daverz]

Pic help:

I have the Rosbaud Bruckner 7 on this release with some other historical Bruckner:

[asin]B001E1DHFO[/asin]

Much, much better sounding than the Vox CD.

Schuricht's EMI 3, 8 and 9 now in a box set:

[asin]B008I15774[/asin]

[Drasko]

Thanks for the positive feedback! Much appreciated.

Yes, great job! Thanks for the effort. Love lists.

few errors though: there are two separate links for Nezet-Seguin 3, same with Barenboim CSO 4, both link and picture for Karajan 6th lead to Norrington, link for Rosbaud 7 leads to his Mahler 7.

[André]

The Jochum Bamberg 8 is available through the Downloads section of John Berky's Web site (download of the month, August 2009). It's a concert from June 1982. There is another Jochum Bamberg 8, this time from December of the same year (1982). IIRC one of the two has slightly more punch, but IMO they are among the very best ever done.

I didn't check if the link still works.

https://www.abruckner.com/downloads/downloadofthemonth/August09/


The Zender 2nd is my favourite performance.

[Mirror Image]

5: Karajan (surprised no votes for it)

(Raises hand) Ummm...I picked HvK's 5th as a favorite:

Here are mine (for now):

No. 1 - Sawallisch/Bavarian State Orch., HvK/Berliners
No. 2 - Inbal/Franfurt RSO
No. 3 - Kubelik/Bavarian RSO
No. 4 - Bohm/Wiener Phil., Wand/Berliners
No. 5 - HvK/Berliners, Haitink/Bavarian RSO
No. 6 - Sawallisch/Bavarian State Orch., HvK/Berliners
No. 7 - Skrowaczewski/Saarbrucken RSO, HvK/Berliners (DG)
No. 8 - HvK/Berliners (DG), Wand/Berliners, Boulez/Wiener Phil.
No. 9 - Wand/Berliners, Giulini/Wiener Phil.

One reason why I believe Karajan's 5th is such a great performance, besides all of the obvious characteristics that dominate his Bruckner performances, is the way he stretched out the Adagio, which was unbelievable and completely convincing.

[Marc]

[...]
Daverz, may I question your Sieghart/2 choice?!? Are you sure it's not Eichhorn that you are thinking about?[...]

Yeah, I thought the same thing.
Actually, for me, it was a toss between Eichhorn 2 (Erstfassung) & Suitner's Tokyo performance.
Eicchorn also made a convincing recording of no 7 btw.
It's a pity that the Linz/Eichhorn/Sieghart box has become officially OOP, despite some quite expensive offerings on the internet.
Too expensive for me anyway.

[Marc]

(Raises hand) Ummm...I picked HvK's 5th as a favorite:

One reason why I believe Karajan's 5th is such a great performance, besides all of the obvious characteristics that dominate his Bruckner performances, is the way he stretched out the Adagio, which was unbelievable and completely convincing.

I ordered the Karajan boxset this weekend.
So far I only knew his 6th, which is good, but nothing really special IMHO.

Jochum/Dresden is also quite slow in the Adagio 5, and I adore that one.
(Listening right now.)

Conclusion: I picked my favourites a few days ago, BUT there is so much to love.
Next year my list could be very different...

[Mirror Image]

I ordered the Karajan boxset this weekend.
So far I only knew his 6th, which is good, but nothing really special IMHO.

Jochum/Dresden is also quite slow in the Adagio 5, and I adore that one.
(Listening right now.)

Conclusion: I picked my favourites a few days ago, BUT there is so much to love.
Next year my list could be very different...

Karajan's 6th isn't great, but, like you said, is plenty good enough. This is a difficult symphony to pull off well anyway. It's so unusual in comparison with the others.

[Marc]

Karajan's 6th isn't great, but, like you said, is plenty good enough. This is a difficult symphony to pull off well anyway. It's so unusual in comparison with the others.

I agree.
Yet, it was one of my 'instant' Bruckner favourites after I first listened to it. The same happened with 1 and 4.

After that, I quickly lost my heart to no 9 (thanks to a very driven live performance by Reinbert de Leeuw and a Dutch youth orchestra).

Then Haitink (Concertgebouw 1981, Philips) convinced me of no 8.
And Jochum/Dresden of no 5.
And I convinced myself of no 2. I think it's probably Bruckner's most underrated symphony.

The nullified and study symphony are quite nice, too. The latter reminded me a lot of Schumann when I first heard it.
But I don't play them that often, despite the fact that I certainly think that 'Zero' deserves better critics than it generally achieves.

Nos 3 & 7 are still a bit of a problem... when I was just 20+ years of age, I listened to 3 & 4 from my dad's vinyl collection (forgot the orchestras/conductors, sorry to say).
I immediately liked 4, but felt completely lost when listening to the Third.
The same with no 7, which I first heard live, with a girlfriend (not THE girlfriend (to my regret back then), but a very good friend nevertheless ), and we both said after the concert: guess we'll never be Bruckner fans then.

I know she's still not Anton's greatest fan, but since I grew older I personally grew more and more attached to his music.

3 & 7 are still 'bubbling under' though.

[Sergeant Rock]

I ordered the Karajan boxset this weekend.
So far I only knew his 6th, which is good, but nothing really special IMHO.

Karajan's 6th isn't great, but, like you said, is plenty good enough. This is a difficult symphony to pull off well anyway. It's so unusual in comparison with the others.

When I ran the Bruckner Death Match (Wand's box vs Karajan's), Karajan just edged out Wand in the Sixth but with the caveat that I wouldn't include either as a favorite. So, yeah, in general, I agree with you guys.

Sarge

[Karl Henning]

Parenthetically ... two and a half years ago I ordered a used copy of the Chailly/RSO Berlin Seventh.

I blush to say that I only noticed today that the wrong disc was in the case:  HvK/Berliner Philharmoniker (which is, of course, a redundancy, as I have the HvK Bruckner box).

Gosh, do I feel silly.

[Marc]

Parenthetically ... two and a half years ago I ordered a used copy of the Chailly/RSO Berlin Seventh.

I blush to say that I only noticed today that the wrong disc was in the case:  HvK/Berliner Philharmoniker (which is, of course, a redundancy, as I have the HvK Bruckner box).

Gosh, do I feel silly.

(*chortle*)

[Karl Henning]

(*chortle*)

And I mean ... Saturday I pull the disc from the jewel case, and ... I see the Deutsche Grammaphon label, not the London/Decca label.  So the imposture was hiding in plain sight.

[Drasko]

The Jochum Bamberg 8 is available through the Downloads section of John Berky's Web site (download of the month, August 2009). It's a concert from June 1982. There is another Jochum Bamberg 8, this time from December of the same year (1982). IIRC one of the two has slightly more punch, but IMO they are among the very best ever done.

The Bamberg Jochum 8 seems never to have made it onto CD (and evenLP or DVD are unavailable) or else is simply not available.

The later one of the Jochum Bambergs is from September in Tokyo. It's available from Altus as both CD and DVD.

http://www.altusmusic.com/conductor/jochum-eugen/jochum-bamberg-so-bruckner-symphony-no-8-2cd-1982-tokyo-live/

http://www.hmv.co.jp/en/artist_Bruckner-1824-1896_000000000019429/item_Sym-8-Jochum-Bamberg-so-1982_151781

[Marc]

And I mean ... Saturday I pull the disc from the jewel case, and ... I see the Deutsche Grammaphon label, not the London/Decca label.  So the imposture was hiding in plain sight.

sleep little Henning do not cry
Chailly will offer you another try



Quite affordable on many websites...

[Karl Henning]

sleep little Henning do not cry
Chailly will offer you another try



Quite affordable on many websites...

Well, I've tried again.

Definitely checking it, first thing it arrives.  I've learnt my lesson . . . .

[Marc]

Well, I've tried again.

Definitely checking it, first thing it arrives.  I've learnt my lesson . . . .

Good.

But first... for old time's sake:

https://www.youtube.com/v/LTo-TwFIr_M

[Sergeant Rock]

Parenthetically ... two and a half years ago I ordered a used copy of the Chailly/RSO Berlin Seventh.

I blush to say that I only noticed today that the wrong disc was in the case:  HvK/Berliner Philharmoniker (which is, of course, a redundancy, as I have the HvK Bruckner box).

Gosh, do I feel silly.

If It's any consolation, Karl, Herbie won the Death Match 7. He does do the Seventh proud (although my personal favorite is his EMI performance).

Sarge

[Karl Henning]

If It's any consolation, Karl, Herbie won the Death Match 7. He does do the Seventh proud (although my personal favorite is his EMI performance).

Sarge

I know a good home to send this redundant Bruckner Seventh to  0:)

[Daverz]

Daverz, may I question your Sieghart/2 choice?!?III Are you sure it's not Eichhorn that you are thinking about?

Yes, sorry, it's Eichhorn.  Original version of 2 edited by Bill Carragan.