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The Music Room => General Classical Music Discussion => Topic started by: Darwin on April 25, 2012, 10:07:28 AM

Title: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Darwin on April 25, 2012, 10:07:28 AM
...is that there isn't enough of his music!

So for those of us who, having heard everything he wrote in multiple versions, crave MORE BRUCKNER!!! ...are there works by other composers which might fulfil that yearning?

I can think of very few: only Rautavaara's 3rd Symphony really seems to qualify.

Maybe fellow forummers can come up with more candidates. Perhaps pupils of Bruckner, or "next generation" German-speaking composers whose music might fit the bill?

And yes, I do realise that this is a "big ask", as the current parlance has it...
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: chasmaniac on April 25, 2012, 10:09:56 AM
Bruckner... He played for the Red Sox, right?
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Sergeant Rock on April 25, 2012, 10:13:05 AM
Furtwängler Symphony #2

Richard Wetz Symphonies 1, 2 and 3

Sarge
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Sergeant Rock on April 25, 2012, 10:16:08 AM
Hans Rott Symphony: a little bit Bruckner, a little bit Wagner, a little bit Brahms, a little bit Smetana, a whole lot of Mahler (or Mahler is a whole lot of Rott  ;D )

Sarge
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Darwin on April 25, 2012, 10:16:59 AM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on April 25, 2012, 10:13:05 AM
Furtwängler Symphony #2

Richard Wetz Symphonies 1, 2 and 3

Sarge
Thank you - I haven't heard those. I'll investigate  :)
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: eyeresist on April 25, 2012, 06:17:52 PM
[ASIN]B006J4AHHC[/ASIN]Saint Saens: Symphony No. 3

[ASIN]B0014118D2[/ASIN]Kalinnikov: Symphony No. 1  (with apologies for the cover!)

[ASIN]B00000I7RC[/ASIN]Rautavaara: Symphony No. 3

[ASIN]B0000016GB[/ASIN]Schnittke: Symphony No. 3

[ASIN]B000005EBQ[/ASIN]Beethoven: Symphony No. 9
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Brian on April 25, 2012, 06:59:07 PM
I'm not sure about Kalinnikov, but...

Quote from: eyeresist on April 25, 2012, 06:17:52 PM
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9

...in the specific performance eyeresist cites, with Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin, Beethoven's Ninth is very Brucknerian.

If you like extremely early Bruckner, you might do well to seek out Rufinatscha's Sixth on Chandos or Schubert's final symphony. But I'm sure 'extremely early Bruckner' isn't what you meant!
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Mirror Image on April 25, 2012, 07:02:26 PM
The trouble with Bruckner is there just isn't enough cowbell in his music. :)
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Darwin on April 26, 2012, 12:04:46 AM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on April 25, 2012, 10:13:05 AM
Furtwängler Symphony #2

Richard Wetz Symphonies 1, 2 and 3

Sarge

Wetz - hmmm, a bit, well, wet compared with AB?

The Furtwangler I have yet to get round to...

Simpson! His Ninth sounds promising on Youtube  8)
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Cato on April 26, 2012, 12:11:43 PM
How about the symphony by his favorite student Hans Rott: people talk about its influence on Mahler, but Rott is not a little under the influence of Bruckner, and Brahms too, as the work is a fusion of sorts.

[asin]B00096S2U0[/asin]
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: eyeresist on April 26, 2012, 05:49:26 PM
Quote from: Darwin on April 26, 2012, 12:04:46 AMSimpson! His Ninth sounds promising on Youtube  8)

It sounds more like chopped-up Sibelius to me :P
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Uncle Connie on April 26, 2012, 06:04:42 PM
Strong second on Richard Wetz, although he has some serious awkwardness owing to lack of proper training.

Furtwängler actually wrote three symphonies and a piano concerto and they all have a Brucknerian feel to them.

And then there's this strange bird:

[asin]B0013PS4AY[/asin]

Lots of Brucknerian echoes and hints, but also lots of other stuff tossed in; in all, uneven but intriguing.  (Hausegger was the one who premiered the original version of the Bruckner 9; his 1938 recording is still for sale.)

Symphonies of Felix von Weingartner also might be of interest; again, Brucknerian elements but hardly a clone.  Good music though.

And one more, a real oddity but well worth the trouble :

[asin]B004R7WGR2[/asin]

It's very hard for me to understand why it has taken so long to rediscover this lady; CPO has now put out this disc and also one of chamber music, and while she is no threat to the Top 10 Greatest, her music has a real brilliance that I found wholly unexpected.  Again, as with the previous people mentioned, the spirit of Bruckner is present in great measure, but this is not Bruckner's Tenth.  But then, really, what IS Bruckner's Tenth?
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: snyprrr on April 26, 2012, 07:29:10 PM
Penderecki 2?
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: eyeresist on April 26, 2012, 08:03:19 PM
Quote from: snyprrr on April 26, 2012, 07:29:10 PM
Penderecki 2?

To me that sounds more like Liszt.
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Darwin on April 27, 2012, 02:23:49 AM
Quote from: snyprrr on April 26, 2012, 07:29:10 PM
Penderecki 2?

A symphony I like a great deal. I have an old Polish recording (Kaspczyk, 1981) with wonderfully rorty low brass. And I agree that it has quite a lot of the Bruckner sound to it (maybe not the content... but never mind!).

I seem to have the Rott symphony on my Brennan, and I know I have one of the Furtwanglers on a CD - but my CDs are all packed away at the moment because I'm about to move house. I think. Some of you probably know how it is... at least this forum provides a few stress-free minutes in each day...

Uncle Connie, thanks for those pointers. How/why do you get to hear these super-obscure works? I don't have enough time (or money) to delve so deep.

PS Having now sampled the Hausegger via Youtube (I didn't realise until recently that there was so much music there) I am impressed. It may not be much like Bruckner, but to my inexpert ears it sounds much more competent than Wetz - better argued and, perhaps because it is technically superior, more sincere and communicative. Added to my Amazon wish list!
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Superhorn on April 27, 2012, 08:37:05 AM
  I've never been able to understand the neglect of the Paul Dukas symphony in C major ,his  only surviving one. (apparently,another was destroyed by the composer).  It has a certain Brucknerian  granduer and seriousness , and is  a very moving and exciting work .
It's in three movements, with highly energetic outer ones and a  brooding and earnest adagio between . 
It's chock full of  attractive thematic material  very skillfully developed , and when you hear it for the first time, you'll wonder where it's been all your life . 
   There are several recordings, by Slatkin on RCA, Yan Pascal Tprtellier  on Chandos , and the late Jean Fournet on Denon, and Jean martinon on EMI,t's a  for example.
I got to know the symphony on a Decca LP back in th e70s swith Walter Weller and the LPO, coupled with the Sorceror's Apprentice .
It's a terrific performance, but I don't believe it's ever been  reissued on CD, which is a pity . Grab it if it ever does.
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Florestan on April 27, 2012, 08:40:52 AM
Quote from: Brian on April 25, 2012, 06:59:07 PM
I'm not sure about Kalinnikov

To my ears Kalinnikov's music is Russian through and through, couldn't be farther away from Bruckner than that..  ;D
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Cato on April 27, 2012, 08:52:59 AM
Quote from: Superhorn on April 27, 2012, 08:37:05 AM
  I've never been able to understand the neglect of the Paul Dukas Symphony in C major ,his  only surviving one. (apparently,another was destroyed by the composer).  It has a certain Brucknerian  granduer and seriousness , and is  a very moving and exciting work .

You are quite right, and through it Dukas proves Schoenberg's statement that C major still contained possibilities.

It should be heard at concerts more often than it is.

Quote from: Florestan on April 27, 2012, 08:40:52 AM
To my ears Kalinnikov's music is Russian through and through, couldn't be farther away from Bruckner than that..  ;D

I found the choice a little awry also: certainly if you want more Tchaikovsky, then seek Kalinnikov!  His two symphonies are most excellent!
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Leo K. on April 27, 2012, 01:47:06 PM
Quote from: Uncle Connie on April 26, 2012, 06:04:42 PM
Strong second on Richard Wetz, although he has some serious awkwardness owing to lack of proper training.

Furtwängler actually wrote three symphonies and a piano concerto and they all have a Brucknerian feel to them.

And then there's this strange bird:

[asin]B0013PS4AY[/asin]

Lots of Brucknerian echoes and hints, but also lots of other stuff tossed in; in all, uneven but intriguing.  (Hausegger was the one who premiered the original version of the Bruckner 9; his 1938 recording is still for sale.)

Symphonies of Felix von Weingartner also might be of interest; again, Brucknerian elements but hardly a clone.  Good music though.

And one more, a real oddity but well worth the trouble :

[asin]B004R7WGR2[/asin]

It's very hard for me to understand why it has taken so long to rediscover this lady; CPO has now put out this disc and also one of chamber music, and while she is no threat to the Top 10 Greatest, her music has a real brilliance that I found wholly unexpected.  Again, as with the previous people mentioned, the spirit of Bruckner is present in great measure, but this is not Bruckner's Tenth.  But then, really, what IS Bruckner's Tenth?

Thanks for this overview! I am really interested to give the above recordings a go, especially Wetz, who will be my next purchase for next month.

8)
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Chaszz on April 27, 2012, 05:09:25 PM
I've off and on been drawing attention here to two late Romantics: Parry and Franz Schmidt. Not especially Brucknerian, but at least late Romantic, good, and mostly overlooked.   
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: JerryS on April 28, 2012, 07:30:14 AM
Prior to reading this thread I had just finished listening to Finn Mortensen's 1953 Symphony Op. 5. It's an amazing neoromantic masterpiece. Sadly, it appears to be the only work of its kind Mortensen wrote. Brucknerian with elements of Hindemith, I find it totally engaging and it would particularly appeal to lovers of Bruckner.

[asin]B0062Z20IW[/asin]
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: knight66 on April 28, 2012, 11:55:44 AM
How have I managed to miss the Rautavaara Symphony 3. I know a few of his pieces, but not this. It is terrific. Thanks.

Mike
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: eyeresist on April 29, 2012, 07:38:00 PM
Quote from: Florestan on April 27, 2012, 08:40:52 AMTo my ears Kalinnikov's music is Russian through and through, couldn't be farther away from Bruckner than that..  ;D

We went through this in the GMG's Top Symphonies thread last year. My rec is specifically for the Friedmann performance, the best available IMO, and the word Brucknerian has been applied to it.


Quote from: knight66 on April 28, 2012, 11:55:44 AMHow have I managed to miss the Rautavaara Symphony 3. I know a few of his pieces, but not this. It is terrific. Thanks.

Y'welcome!
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Cato on April 30, 2012, 09:45:15 AM
Quote from: vivolin on April 28, 2012, 07:30:14 AM
Prior to reading this thread I had just finished listening to Finn Mortensen's 1953 Symphony Op. 5. It's an amazing neoromantic masterpiece. Sadly, it appears to be the only work of its kind Mortensen wrote. Brucknerian with elements of Hindemith, I find it totally engaging and it would particularly appeal to lovers of Bruckner.

Although people may disagree with the assertion, I have always sensed some Brucknerian elements in Hindemith, who of course is usually linked to Neo-Classicism, and rightly so.

Still, Bruckner was something of a classicist himself!  Probably some Ph.D. thesis in Musicology has an analysis of Bruckner's possible influence on Hindemith.   0:)
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Karl Henning on April 30, 2012, 09:55:27 AM
Quote from: Cato on April 30, 2012, 09:45:15 AM
Although people may disagree with the assertion, I have always sensed some Brucknerian elements in Hindemith, who of course is usually linked to Neo-Classicism, and rightly so.

Intriguing! I couldn't possibly speak to it, as I've only relatively recently found my way "into the Abbey," as 'twere.
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Leo K. on April 30, 2012, 10:21:21 AM
Last weekend I bought the three symphonies of Richard Wetz (CPO label) on iTunes, and imagined I was at a Wetz Festival in Erfurt. I listened to all of them, separating the symphonies by listening to the Kleist-Ouvertüre and Gesang des Lebens.

I was in epic-late-romantic-symphonic heaven all afternoon. I am looking forward to more listens of these works!

8)
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Cato on April 30, 2012, 11:44:01 AM
Quote from: Leo K on April 30, 2012, 10:21:21 AM
Last weekend I bought the three symphonies of Richard Wetz (CPO label) on iTunes, and imagined I was at a Wetz Festival in Erfurt. I listened to all of them, separating the symphonies by listening to the Kleist-Ouvertüre and Gesang des Lebens.

I was in epic-late-romantic-symphonic heaven all afternoon. I am looking forward to more listens of these works!

8)

I have not heard these: to what degree do they qualify as heirs to the symphonies of Saint Anton?   0:)
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: eyeresist on April 30, 2012, 05:46:30 PM
Quote from: Cato on April 30, 2012, 09:45:15 AMAlthough people may disagree with the assertion, I have always sensed some Brucknerian elements in Hindemith, who of course is usually linked to Neo-Classicism, and rightly so.

Well, the Germans do tend to love their brass chorales - and who can blame them?
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on May 01, 2012, 02:23:00 AM
He has already been mentioned - Franz Schmidt. His Second Symphony is rather Brucknerian, and it has a rousing brass chorale in the final movement... The performance by Neëme Järvi on Chandos is excellent.
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Sergeant Rock on May 01, 2012, 02:27:08 AM
Quote from: J.Z. Herrenberg on May 01, 2012, 02:23:00 AM
He has already been mentioned - Franz Schmidt. His Second Symphony is rather Brucknerian, and it has a rousing brass chorale in the final movement... The performance by Neëme Järvi on Chandos is excellent.

And Luisi's performance, slower than Järvi, is even more Brucknerian. Good choices, both.

Sarge
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Sergeant Rock on May 01, 2012, 02:31:42 AM
Quote from: Leo K on April 30, 2012, 10:21:21 AM
Last weekend I bought the three symphonies of Richard Wetz (CPO label) on iTunes, and imagined I was at a Wetz Festival in Erfurt. I listened to all of them, separating the symphonies by listening to the Kleist-Ouvertüre and Gesang des Lebens.

I was in epic-late-romantic-symphonic heaven all afternoon. I am looking forward to more listens of these works!

8)

(http://photos.imageevent.com/sgtrock/asheville/bUTTHEAD.gif)

Welcome to the Wetz club  :)  It's rather exclusive. Members include me, Uncle Connie, now you, and...  Well, that's about it  8)

Sarge
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Sergeant Rock on May 01, 2012, 03:02:54 AM
Quote from: Cato on April 30, 2012, 11:44:01 AM
I have not heard these: to what degree do they qualify as heirs to the symphonies of Saint Anton?   0:)

"Whereas at the beginning it was Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann who showed him the way to his own goal, in Franz Liszt and Anton Bruckner he encountered two near-contemporaries with whom he sensed a special elective affinity without ever letting himself be completely absorbed or infected by them.... Now it would be absurd to want to deny the very direct Brucknerian influences evident in the three symphonies which Wetz composed between 1915 and 1922. Although he may have been of the opinion that he had adopted no more than the treatment of the brass from his great model, anyone familiar with Bruckner who listens for the first time to Wetz's music will immediately recognize the motivic and harmonic similarities." --Eckhardt von den Hoogen, from the CPO liner notes to the Third Symphony.

Sarge
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Karl Henning on May 01, 2012, 03:50:10 AM
Not sure I quite like the word "infected," there ; )

Brass chorales . . . these go back directly to Bruckner? Well, perhaps you're right at that. The history of the mechanics of the instruments favors that period.
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Sergeant Rock on May 01, 2012, 03:53:52 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on May 01, 2012, 03:50:10 AM
Not sure I quite like the word "infected," there ; )

Brass chorales . . . these go back directly to Bruckner?

Wetz's brass chorales go back to Bruckner, Bruckner's brass chorales go back to Gabrielli.

Sarge
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Karl Henning on May 01, 2012, 03:56:52 AM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on May 01, 2012, 03:53:52 AM
Wetz brass chorales go back to Bruckner, Bruckner's brass chorales go back to Gabrielli.

Understood, Sarge; I was only thinking that, in the interval, trumpets in particular benefited from mechanical developments, so that the overall tone of the brass choir would have been entirely otherwise.  With the fully chromatic trumpet, you can have warm trumpet tones in their low register which would not have been at all practical in the days of the Venetian maestro.
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Cato on May 01, 2012, 03:42:12 PM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on May 01, 2012, 03:02:54 AM
"Whereas at the beginning it was Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann who showed him the way to his own goal, in Franz Liszt and Anton Bruckner he encountered two near-contemporaries with whom he sensed a special elective affinity without ever letting himself be completely absorbed or infected by them.... ." --Eckhardt von den Hoogen, from the CPO liner notes to the Third Symphony.

Sarge

Quote from: karlhenning on May 01, 2012, 03:50:10 AM
Not sure I quite like the word "infected," there ; )


Karl: the answer as to why you twitch at the word is that it is from a CPO CD's notes!   ;D

The absolutely worst liner notes ever can often be found there: my CPO Prokofiev notes at times sound like they were written by Martians on speed.   :o
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: Karl Henning on May 01, 2012, 05:53:32 PM
Funny you should say, Cato! Just to-day, I looked at the liner notes to the cpo CD of the Hartmann quartets. P.U.!
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: mszczuj on May 03, 2012, 02:24:08 AM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on May 01, 2012, 02:31:42 AM
Welcome to the Wetz club  :)  It's rather exclusive. Members include me, Uncle Connie, now you, and...  Well, that's about it  8)

And me.

Wetz symphonies were written simply to be the answer to this thread beginning question.

I would say that there is such thing as "Bruckner-symphony" genre. There are 14 symphonies belonging to it. 11 are by Bruckner and 3 are by Wetz.

Rott symphony is close but he developed Bruckner model in direction to future Mahler. Wetz developed Bruckner model in direction to Bruckner. Yes. And "developed" is the key word here. He was not imitator of Bruckner, he was just Anton 1.2.
Title: Re: The trouble with Bruckner
Post by: J.Z. Herrenberg on May 03, 2012, 05:04:09 AM
Harry is another Wetz fan. And I know I shall have to listen again...