Brahms/Bruckner/LPO/Jurowski/rfh/26/02/14/19:30 r3 live

[Tevot]

i was in the RFH last evening for this tremendous concert as part of a late birthday treat. ..The interplay between the soloists and between the soloists and the orchestra in the Brahms was remarkable... Julia Fischer and Daniel Muller-Schott, were treated to a royally appreciative reception after the performance and gave us a remarkable and lengthy encore of Johan Halvorsen's Passacaglia after Handel's Harpsichord Suite No 7, clearly announced by DM-S. The audience's reception was even more enthusiastic than it had been for the concerto and the orchestra joined in. It's worth going on to the iplayer for this alone. I do hope that the LPO will release the entire concert for posterity...

If LPO/Jurowski plan to play more Bruckner then the concerts will be straight into my diary. I hope that the tickets sell better - there were great swathes of the Balcomy that were empty - is early Bruckner that much of a minority interest? On this evidence it doesn't deserve to be when played by this team.

Many thanks ams for sharing your experience and reactions to the concert. I'll certainly try it on Listen Again - but so far this evening - connectivity has been lousy in this neck of the woods There are quite a few Bruckner Symphonies that I do not know that well - if indeed at all. Hopefully Maestro Jurowski will be a persuasive advocate

Best Wishes,

Tevot

[Lento]

I think it is a little short of really memorable material compared to the later symphonies, and the finale was rather hard work. Interesting, though, to hear later works foreshadowed in places.

[cloughie]

.... they're firm but polite when deakling with people who drape their outergarments over the balcony rail, f'ristance.

Never been deakled, ams!

[jayne lee wilson]

Especially in the lighter 1872 orchestration, Bruckner's 2nd is a subtle masterpiece with few grand perorations, and it doesn't give up its secrets easily; hence the need for greater familiarity, made somewhat harder by the existence of different versions. Jurowski used the Carraghan 1872 text, which is most striking for placing the scherzo second, including its unexpected and dramatic coda. I think it's this subtlety, and - almost uniquely in his oeuvre - the absence of powerful chorale-based climaxes, that gives even some of those listeners who love Bruckner a problem. The only possible approach is to listen to it often, and in this edition. Perhaps with your usual Brucknerian expectations slightly modified.

I liked Jurowski's almost understated approach to both the first movement and the scherzo; swift and texturally light, only gradually increasing weight and tension as the structure progressed. This was a classic long-term view of Brucknerian architecture, which emphasised the work's pastoral moods - birdcalls, horns deep in the forest, danceable violin melodies, especially in the gorgeously-voiced-and-phrased trio. I do think this side of Bruckner's inspiration is the key to the piece, and Jurowski was wonderfully alive to it, with that expressive understatement entirely apt to the natural world.
Jurowski set a lovely, flowing tempo for the andante, and its climactic episode - which too many conductors strive to force a drama out of, especially in the 1877 truncation - was beautifully underplayed, scarcely reaching an audible fortissimo. The principal horn was heroic in coping with the very high-lying solos, and wafted the movement beautifully - well, almost-perfectly - to its sleepy close. (Later revisions replace the horn here with the more manageable, but less poetic, clarinet).

"Mehr schnell" the finale says, and Jurowski certainly kept things moving, yet never rushing the more discursive subtleties of the 1872 text, keeping those very original, almost futuristicallly contrapuntal wind figures quirkily clear. Sonata may be its structural basis, but the constant transformation and variation of its many ideas are apt to confound conventional expectations, especially as they are interleaved with references to earlier movements and a tender quotation from the kyrie of the F Minor mass. Especially striking too is Bruckner's use of that bass groundswell inspired by the coda to the first movement of Beethoven's 9th, as he strives to establish the various tonal planes that adventurously lead him back to the tonic for the coda. There was just a slight loss of clarity and articulation as the orchestra approached the end - forgivable after their heroically understated efforts, but (at least as broadcast via HDs) the undulating doublebass line in those last bars wasn't ideally clear, leaving just a slight sense of musical solecism for those who know the piece well.

I've listened twice to this very idiomatic and insightful performance, and it has only increased my love for the work, and my devotion to this 1872 edition, which blends its lovely, ambling pastoral evocations with some remarkably innovative structures, thematic developments and orchestration. It's a shame that the 1877 text tends to reduce that originality, attempting - I think wrongly - to make it conform more closely to a conventional, dramatically-shaped sonata-based symphony.

[cloughie]

Especially in the lighter 1872 orchestration, Bruckner's 2nd is a subtle masterpiece with few grand perorations, and it doesn't give up its secrets easily; hence the need for greater familiarity, made somewhat harder by the existence of different versions. Jurowski used the Carraghan 1872 text, which is most striking for placing the scherzo second, including its unexpected and dramatic coda. I think it's this subtlety, and - almost uniquely in his oeuvre - the absence of powerful chorale-based climaxes, that gives even some of those listeners who love Bruckner a problem. The only possible approach is to listen to it often, and in this edition. Perhaps with your usual Brucknerian expectations slightly modified.

I liked Jurowski's almost understated approach to both the first movement and the scherzo; swift and texturally light, only gradually increasing weight and tension as the structure progressed. This was a classic long-term view of Brucknerian architecture, which emphasised the work's pastoral moods - birdcalls, horns deep in the forest, danceable violin melodies, especially in the gorgeously-voiced-and-phrased trio. I do think this side of Bruckner's inspiration is the key to the piece, and Jurowski was wonderfully alive to it, with that expressive understatement entirely apt to the natural world.
Jurowski set a lovely, flowing tempo for the andante, and its climactic episode - which too many conductors strive to force a drama out of, especially in the 1877 truncation - was beautifully underplayed, scarcely reaching an audible fortissimo. The principal horn was heroic in coping with the very high-lying solos, and wafted the movement beautifully - well, almost-perfectly - to its sleepy close. (Later revisions replace the horn here with the more manageable, but less poetic, clarinet).

"Mehr schnell" the finale says, and Jurowski certainly kept things moving, yet never rushing the more discursive subtleties of the 1872 text, keeping those very original, almost futuristicallly contrapuntal wind figures quirkily clear. Sonata may be its structural basis, but the constant transformation and variation of its many ideas are apt to confound conventional expectations, especially as they are interleaved with references to earlier movements and a tender quotation from the kyrie of the F Minor mass. Especially striking too is Bruckner's use of that bass groundswell inspired by the coda to the first movement of Beethoven's 9th, as he strives to establish the various tonal planes that adventurously lead him back to the tonic for the coda. There was just a slight loss of clarity and articulation as the orchestra approached the end - forgivable after their heroically understated efforts, but (at least as broadcast via HDs) the undulating doublebass line in those last bars wasn't ideally clear, leaving just a slight sense of musical solecism for those who know the piece well.

I've listened twice to this very idiomatic and insightful performance, and it has only increased my love for the work, and my devotion to this 1872 edition, which blends its lovely, ambling pastoral evocations with some remarkably innovative structures, thematic developments and orchestration. It's a shame that the 1877 text tends to reduce that originality, attempting - I think wrongly - to make it conform more closely to a conventional, dramatically-shaped sonata-based symphony.

Jayne - I noticed this in the forthcoming releases - looks an interesting but maybe a strange idea - any views - have other Bruckner Symphonies received similar treatment?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bruckner-Symphonie-Anthony-Payne-players/dp/B00I8Q2U9C/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1393523764&sr=1-1&keywords=pinnock+bruckner

[amateur51]

Never been deakled, ams!

Now fixed - cheers cloughie

[amateur51]

That's odd - they keep a considerable distance from those who so drape their undergarments.

[teamsaint]

http://www.amazon.com/Symphony-7-Arr-Chamber-Ensemble/dp/B0007OP680

more chamber sized Bruckner.

Perhaps a service wash facility at the RFH would boost ticket sales. Pick up on your way out, and save all that unsightly draping and deakling.


Oh, and great report from the Hall Ams.

[amateur51]

Jayne - I noticed this in the forthcoming releases - looks an interesting but maybe a strange idea - any views - have other Bruckner Symphonies received similar treatment?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bruckner-Sym...nnock+bruckner

I heard Maestro Pinnock conduct this at a free concert at Royal Academy of Music a while back so the odd cough may be mine It was another fascinating event.

[jayne lee wilson]

Jayne - I noticed this in the forthcoming releases - looks an interesting but maybe a strange idea - any views - have other Bruckner Symphonies received similar treatment?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bruckner-Sym...nnock+bruckner

As I implied above, the 2nd is unusual in Bruckner's output for its serenity, delicacy and relative lack of expansive, heavy climaxes - the finale arrives to release the tension! It does lend itself very well to chamber orchestral performance, as Venzago with the Northern Sinfonia and Dausgaard with the Swedish CO show - both use Nowak 1877 but play it VERY differently, and memorably enough to ease aside one's editorial preferences at least for the duration...

I won't be rushing to buy this particular reduction...I'm more inclined to seek out another 1872-text recording - there are a surprising number available, not just the marvellous Tintner. Interesting to watch for reviews of this Pinnock effort though... yet I do feel Bruckner is an essentially ORCHESTRAL composer, whatever forces you use...

I just want to play No.2 again now! But as usual, "Time is the Evil"...

**EDIT - Just seen Ken Ward's carefully-observed review of the RAM performance on Bachtrack... unfortunately it appears that this performance uses Payne's own hybrid edition "restoring some but not all of the optional cuts" ... Well they're not really OPTIONAL, are they? So the scherzo has the coda but no repeats...
Shame they couldn't have chosen 1872 and stuck to it really...

[EdgeleyRob]

Well I gave this a go.

The Brahms double concerto is a favourite of mine and this was a stunning performance IMO.

Bruckner 2,gave it my best shot,but alas nothing.
I hear that it divides opinion amongst AB fans.
Our very own seasoned Brucknerian Petrushka struggles with it,Jayne raves over it.
I don't listen to a lot of Bruckner,but do enjoy listening to some of the later Symphonies occasionally.
The 2nd I just find ordinary and not particularly memorable,although it's hard to imagine it being played any better than this.
Sorry.

[Nick Armstrong]

I listened a couple more times to the Bruckner today. I'd concede that the first two movements are not top drawer. But Rob, try starting with the slow movement and pressing on through to the end of the piece.... It's not for nothing they caught my ear last night first time through.

[verismissimo]

In my 'library' I only have recordings of the 1877 version (Haas and Nowak and Carragan), but what a wonderful symphony it is, particularly the many intimate passages.

[Nick Armstrong]

Can't stop listening to the slow movement. Intoxicating in Jurowski's hands.

The only version on my shelves is in the Jochum/Dresden box - No 2 in the 1877 version has been removed this morning and is sitting next to the CD player awaiting a listen (I think the first ever ) this weekend....

[Nick Armstrong]

those very original, almost futuristicallly contrapuntal wind figures quirkily clear.

Lovely review jayne and your above reference to those clucking, chattering clarinets etc is just right - that's the music that sounded to me as if it had been written in the 1930s...