Bruckner's Abbey

[jlaurson]

Very nice post, Jens! Great job, sir.

Thanks for the positive feedback! Much appreciated. (As I say: "Bruckner is a love. [Mahler an addiction.]")ne
Daverz, may I question your Sieghart/2 choice?!?III Are you sure it's not Eichhorn that you are thinking about?schur

Tally-time
(updated):

No. 00 - Inbal/Frankfurt



No. 0 - Blunier B.O.Bonn |  Marriner/Stuttgart |  Haitink/RCO | Skrowaczewski Saarbrücken



No. 1 - HvK/Berlin (x2) | Neumann/Leipzig (x2) | Haitink/RCO (x2) | Chailly | Sawallisch/BStO | Tintner | Maazel BRSO | Wand/Cologne | Skrowaczewski Saarbrücken




No. 2 - Stein, WPh (x5)| Jochum/Dresden (x2) | Dausgaard Swedish CO | Barenboim/BPh | Inbal/Frankfurt | HvK/Berlin | Suitner/Tokyo | Zender/SWF-BB | Eichhorn/BOLinz/SWF-BB




No. 3 - Kubelik BRSO Sony (x3) {Audite} | Nagano/DSO (x2) | Celibidache MPhil (x2) | Böhm/WPh (x2)  | Venzago, Bern SO | Szell/ClevO | Tintner | Sinopoli/Dresden | Nezet-Seguin | Schuricht/WPh/EMI




No. 4 - Böhm WPh (x4) | Kubelik, BRSO (x2) | HvK/Berlin/EMI (x2) | Klemperer/BRSO (x2) | Honeck, Pittsburgh | Blomstedt/SFSO | Wand/BPh | Jochum Dresden | Barenboim/CSO  | Suitner/StaKapB | B00004YL94/CzPO | Barenboim/CSO | Ormandy/Philadelphia | Herrreweghe (Review)




No. 5 - Dohnanyi/ClevO (x3) | Celibidache MPhil (x2) | Sinopoli, Dresden (x2) | HvK/BPh (x2) | Wand, Cologne | Wand, NDRSO | Haitink/BRSO | Suitner/StakapB | Jochum/RCO/Philips {December 1986} | Klemperer/NewPO | Harnoncourt/WPh




No. 6 - Norrington, SWR RSO (x3) (review) | HvK/Berlin (x2) | Stein/WPh (x2) | Klemperer (x2) | Haitink Dresden (x2) (review) | Sawallisch/BStO (x2) | Celibidache, MPhil (x2) | Nagano/DSO | D.R.Davies | Gielen/Baden-Baden | Bongartz/Lpzg | Keilberth/BPh 




No. 7 - HvK/Vienna (x2) | Blomstedt/Dresden (x2) | HvK/Berlin/EMI (x2) {DG} | Rosbaud/SWR BB (x2) | Chailly/RSO Berlin | Haitink CSO (review) | Böhm, BRSO (review) | Böhm, WPh  | Dohnanyi/ClevO | Skrowaczewski Saarbrücken | Matacic/CzechPO | Schuricht/BPh | Herrreweghe (Review)




No. 8 - Wand, BPh (x2) | Boulez, WPh (x2) | Celibidache, MPhil, EMI (x2) | Schuricht/VPO (x2) |Böhm/WPh (x2) | Blomstedt, Leipzig | Maazel/BPh | HvK/Berlin |  Furtwängler/WPh | Haitink/RCO/69 | Haitink/RCO/81 | Chailly | Thielemann/Dresden (review)




No. 9 - Kubelik/BRSO (x2) | Wand, BPh (x2) | Giulini, WPh (x2) | Jochum/Dresden (x2) | Haitink, RCO 81 | Barenboim, BPh | Dohnanyi, Philharmonia (review) | Furtwängler/BPh | Mehta/WPh  | Walter | Rögner | Leitner | Bernstein/WPh | Rattle/Complete | Schuricht/VPO





Notes:
Sawallisch is not w/BRSO but BStO in both instances. Berlin and Munich Orchestras dominate w/20 resp. 16 mentions if I counted right.
André mentioned a Zander/2 which I am not aware of; only his 5th... The Bamberg Jochum 8 seems never to have made it onto CD (and evenLP or DVD are unavailable) or else is simply not available.

Very little consensus. Assumed editorial liberties by ignoring the "Chicago-for-everything" recommendation.  Includes Drasko's choices: Speaking of Drasko: Did I get your Furtwangler Choces right? With him, it's always a bit tricky in Bruckner, given the many non-official and officialish recordings that are out there.

Conductors with Multiple Mentions (=/>4):


1 - HvK     : IIIIIIIIIIIIII 14 (˄)
2 - Böhm    : IIIIIIIIII 10 ˅
2 - Haitink : IIIIIIIIII 10 ˅
4 - Wand    : IIIIIIIII 9 -
5 - Kubelik : IIIIIIII 8 -
5 - Celi    : IIIIIIII 8 ˄
7 - Stein   : IIIIIII 7 ˄
8 - Jochum  : IIIIII 6 ˅
9 - Dohnanyi: IIIII 5 -
9 - Schuricht: IIIII 5 NEW
11 - Chailly: IIII 4 ˅

[Mirror Image]

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.

There's something completely endearing about Bruckner's music. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's just a quality in his music that I cannot find in any other 19th Century composer. I mean sure composers like Brahms, Dvorak, Berlioz, Schumann, Liszt, Wagner, Schubert, among others had some special things happening in their music and each of these composers have their own followers and detractors (as with any composer), but even when I wasn't a follower of Bruckner, I was attracted by the 'strange noise' of his music. It just sounded like nothing that came before or after it.

As for Symphonies 3 & 7, I love the 7th more than the 3rd. I'm still not completely convinced by his 3rd. It has some interesting qualities and quirks about it, but it doesn't really speak to me right now. I suppose I'll appreciate it more as time goes on. As for the 2nd being underrated, I suppose we can say that of Symphonies 0-3 in general. I don't hear people talk about these works very often, but I definitely need to do my homework a bit more in regards to these early symphonies. I do love the 1st. I'm getting more familiar with the 2nd. I don't know 0 or 00 at all or as well as I should.

[Mirror Image]

Loving the work you're doing, Jens. Keep it up!

[Cato]

There's something completely endearing about Bruckner's music. I can't quite put my finger on it...

I don't know 0 or 00 at all or as well as I should.

Undoubtedly the source of the endearing aspect, which for me is too weak a description (life-long obsession comes closer       ), is different among listeners, which is why it will be  difficult to describe.

A few years ago I heard Stefan Sanderling and the Toledo Symphony play the Symphony #0 in the Roman Catholic cathedral there, and in their performance die Nullte had nothing to be bashful about: it was a proud Bruckner Symphony, despite its early origin!

[Mirror Image]

Undoubtedly the source of the endearing aspect, which for me is too weak a description (life-long obsession comes closer       ), is different among listeners, which is why it will be  difficult to describe.

A few years ago I heard Stefan Sanderling and the Toledo Symphony play the Symphony #0 in a the Roman Catholic cathedral there, and in their performance die Nullte had nothing to be bashful about: it was a proud Bruckner Symphony, despite its early origin!

Great to read, Cato. Yeah, there's something quite compelling about this music.

[Marc]

[...]
As for Symphonies 3 & 7, I love the 7th more than the 3rd. I'm still not completely convinced by his 3rd.[...]

Same here.

Undoubtedly the source of the endearing aspect, which for me is too weak a description (life-long obsession comes closer       ), is different among listeners, which is why it will be  difficult to describe.

A few years ago I heard Stefan Sanderling and the Toledo Symphony play the Symphony #0 in the Roman Catholic cathedral there, and in their performance die Nullte had nothing to be bashful about: it was a proud Bruckner Symphony, despite its early origin!

Mind you, die Nullte was already Bruckner's third symphony!
Despite what many people think, it was composed between nos 1 & 2.
Originally Bruckner wrote 'no 2' on the score of the 'Nullified'.
But he decided to withdraw this specific work in D-minor, because he already started to sketch and work on the (eventual) 3rd in D-minor, which he thought was a far better attempt to 'honour' this Beethoven 9 key. And the earlier D-minor work received too much criticism from f.i. leading members of the Wiener Phil.

In fact, the only 'real' Zero symphony is no 00, which Bruckner has always considered to be just a 'Schularbeit'. (Still a nice one, though. )

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_in_D_minor_(Bruckner)

[Jo498]

As he was 47 when he wrote the "Nullte", 44 when he wrote the first, slightly over 40 when he wrote the "Studiensymphonie", none of them can really be considered early...
If one takes the official 1st, even Brahms beat him who despite laboring for more than a decade on his first got it done when he was 43...

[Cato]

Mind you, die Nullte was already Bruckner's third symphony!
Despite what many people think, it was composed between nos 1 & 2.

No, I had not forgotten that! 

Symphonies 0-3 are "Early" in the sense that they are - obviously! - not from the middle or end of his career!  That Bruckner himself was in his 40's (a "late bloomer"  0:)) would not seem to affect that.

I think Philip Glass has them beat, seeing that he was 55 when he wrote the "Low" Symphony in 1992.

Kodaly began sketching his only symphony when he was in his 50's, and finished it when he was 79! 

[Karl Henning]

Well, if I do write a [first] symphony, it is apt to be in my 50s (I have sketches from earlier, but ... may not trouble to use them).  If I do start it though (pace Kodály) I shan't wait until 79 to finish it.

[André]

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

You are right, of course ! I'll be listening to the two of them in short order to make up my mind as to which of the two is my favourite. In any case, they both rank in my top 10 for that work. An embarrassment of riches !

Right now, listening to the Zender 2nd, a wonderful recording indeed. The work may be a bit all over the place stylistically speaking, but it's echt-Bruckner.

[bhodges]

My review of a quite moving Bruckner 6th Symphony last night, with Christoph Eschenbach and the National Youth Orchestra of the USA. I was quite impressed that that musicians relatively young (ages 16-19) could play this so beautifully, and with such confidence.

http://newyorkclassicalreview.com/2016/07/eschenbach-national-youth-orchestra-of-usa-scale-the-heights-with-bruckner/

--Bruce

[(poco) Sforzando]

My review of a quite moving Bruckner 6th Symphony last night, with Christoph Eschenbach and the National Youth Orchestra of the USA. I was quite impressed that that musicians relatively young (ages 16-19) could play this so beautifully, and with such confidence.

http://newyorkclassicalreview.com/2016/07/eschenbach-national-youth-orchestra-of-usa-scale-the-heights-with-bruckner/

--Bruce

I read about this but forgot to mark the date. Well, I'm sure it's not the last time they'll play in NY. Good to hear they did so well (the New York Youth Symphony also plays at Carnegie, and is quite good; each concert features and original work by a young composer too).

[bhodges]

I read about this but forgot to mark the date. Well, I'm sure it's not the last time they'll play in NY. Good to hear they did so well (the New York Youth Symphony also plays at Carnegie, and is quite good; each concert features and original work by a young composer too).

Based on their schedule to date, they come to Carnegie every other summer, so looks like their next visit will be in 2018. (I wish they could play a bit more, but the snag is probably scheduling, since the musicians come from all over the country - not quite "all 50 states," but close.)

--Bruce

[Marc]

Did some no 7 listening during the last days, which changed my mind about my little list... I'd like to exchange a splendid recording for a splendid performance, please please please.

(Jens, I hope it's not too much trouble. )

No. 1 - Haitink/Concertgebouw
No. 2 - Suitner/Tokyo (live)
No. 3 - Wand/Köln
No. 4 - Ormandy/Philadelphia
No. 5 - Harnoncourt/Wiener Phil
No. 6 - Haitink/Dresden (live)
No. 7 - Chailly/Berlin RSO Rosbaud/SWR Baden-Baden
No. 8 - Haitink/Concertgebouw (1981)
No. 9 - Bernstein/Wiener Phil ['sentimental choice']

Bonus:
Study Symphony: Inbal/Frankfurt
Nullified Symphony: Skrowaczewski/Saarbrücken

[(poco) Sforzando]

Based on their schedule to date, they come to Carnegie every other summer, so looks like their next visit will be in 2018. (I wish they could play a bit more, but the snag is probably scheduling, since the musicians come from all over the country - not quite "all 50 states," but close.)

--Bruce

They are resident at Purchase, NY, and according to the web site will play at Carnegie each year.

[André]

Thanks to a benefactor, I'm expecting a cd of the 1st under Haitink with the SOBR (1974) which, according to him, is even more dynamic than the 1971 COA recording. I can't wait !!  .

[Marc]

Thanks to a benefactor, I'm expecting a cd of the 1st under Haitink with the SOBR (1974) which, according to him, is even more dynamic than the 1971 COA recording. I can't wait !!  .

It is.
Coincidentally I listened to it last week, and enjoyed it a lot.
Less 'perfect' than the Concertgebouw, but with more emotion.

Have fun!

[Mirror Image]

Tomorrow I'll give Thielemann's newest recording of the 7th a listen. Great looking package overall from Profil.

[TheGSMoeller]

Munich Phil has its own label now, and released Gergiev conducting Bruckner's 4th. Has anyone heard this? Or heard Gergiev conducting Bruckner before?

[André]

This is an excellent question. Unless you intended to scare us all  ?