Bruckner Symphony No 7 BPO/Fürtwangler 1949 Berlin

[Barbirollians]

I do not have anything to compare it with but I am mightily impressed by the Pristine remastering of this performance . Utterly gripping from first note to last . How sad it is that Fürtwangler died just before the age of stereo .

It is a fabulous account of the work -

[Bryn]

I do not have anything to compare it with but I am mightily impressed by the Pristine remastering of this performance . Utterly gripping from first note to last . How sad it is that Fürtwangler died just before the age of stereo . . .

Except he didn't. The 'Emperor' concerto was recorded in stereo during the Second World War, (Rother conducting and Gieseking on the Joanna).

Listen closely and you might hear the anti-aircraft battery.

[richardfinegold]

But this technology disappeared immediately at Wars end and to be re created.
And technically, the first stereo technology was developed by Alan Blumlein ( sp?) and his team, circa 1931

[jayne lee wilson]

I do not have anything to compare it with but I am mightily impressed by the Pristine remastering of this performance . Utterly gripping from first note to last . How sad it is that Fürtwangler died just before the age of stereo .

It is a fabulous account of the work - gripping from first note to last .

Did you ever hear the classic VPO/Knappertsbusch from the same year? Live at Salzburg 30/08/49, available on Orfeo etc.....one of my favourite historicals..... wonder why Pristine never did much with Kna....

[Barbirollians]

Except he didn't. The 'Emperor' concerto was recorded in stereo during the Second World War, (Rother conducting and Gieseking on the Joanna).

Listen closely and you might hear the anti-aircraft battery.

I don't like Gieseking's very gabbled playing at the start of the first movement - extraordinary as the sound is .

[Barbirollians]

No JLW I have not heard Kna in Bruckner - was he not addicted to the old cut editions ?

[jayne lee wilson]

No JLW I have not heard Kna in Bruckner - was he not addicted to the old cut editions ?

In the 7th this doesn't matter; no controversies there. So the editional questions concern mainly the 3rd, 4th and 8th. The Kna 3rd is very familiar to most Brucknerians: the last Rattig/Schalk 1890 revised edition - the most frequently recorded.
(The Kna 5th (Schalk, who couldn't begin to grasp its heavenly so-original formal perfection) is so severely cut, finale especially, as to be hors concours.... just avoid it unless you enjoy appalled fascination..)

Kna's 8th is the Bruckner-authorised 1892 First Published Edition, very similar to 1890 (Nowak) but with fascinatingly different details of orchestration and dynamics - many more expression and tempo variation markings. I'm very fond of this version - it has a really beautiful sound. My favourite is the VSO/Andreae 1953.

The Kna 4th is the Loewe/Gutmann 1888/9 First Published Edition, again similar to the familiar 1878-80 but with differences in dynamics, orchestration, more expression marks etc. The main listener shocks will be piccolo, and cymbal clashes especially in the finale...but there's a foreshortened scherzo reprise which can be too much for some!
Furtwangler used this too, but he didn't always observe this cut. (Haven't checked all the Knas for this though...)
Korstvedt produced a new edition which Vanska superbly recorded on BIS...5-Star Recommend!

https://www.eclassical.com/shop/art96/BIS-1746-SA_booklet.pdf-de0873.pdf

Check Berky or Griegel for details eg....

https://bruckner.webs.com/versions.html#sym8