Forum BAL : Bruckner 9

[Barbirollians]

What is your favourite recording ?

I have a soft spot for Cleveland /Dohnanyi as it is so alive and for Walter for its humanity but the top for me has to be Gunter Wand and probably his 2001 Prom performance most of all .

[Anna]

Bernstein and the Weiner Phil for me.

[ahinton]

Bernstein and the Weiner Phil for me.

I'm not really sure, because it has to be a four-movement version for me otherwise I'm seriously short-changed...

[Bryn]

My current favourite is Harding/Swedish RSO (with the most recent version of the Samale/Mazzuca/Phillips/Cohrs completion). It's not available on commercial CD but various downloads of the Radio broadcast can be found with a little searching. The recording I have is a DAB mp2 from an Afternoon on 3 broadcast a few years ago.

[Petrushka]

I was at the 2001 Prom with Gunter Wand and the NDRSO and will never, ever forget it. Can Testament be persuaded to twist the Beeb's arm and provide a CD release? I have a slightly less than adequate radio recording but this legendary performance cries out for issue.

I have 24 versions on CD plus two on DVD and a few off-air recordings. However, the CD recording that, for me, speaks more than any other of the transforming power of the grandeur, terror and deep sadness in this great music is the one by Herbert von Karajan and the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival on July 25 1976. It was released in 1992 by DG as part of the VPO's 150th anniversary and is probably unavailable. In my very humble opinion this is one of those discs that change your life and would be a clear front-runner.

My favourite off-air performance is that from Bernard Haitink and the Royal Concertgebouw given on March 8 2009.

[ahinton]

My current favourite is Harding/Swedish RSO (with the most recent version of the Samale/Mazzuca/Phillips/Cohrs completion). It's not available on commercial CD but various downloads of the Radio broadcast can be found with a little searching. The recording I have is a DAB mp2 from an Afternoon on 3 broadcast a few years ago.

I have it and it's probably about as good as the full version gets right now. I still wonder about the additional material that Cohrs claims to suspect is lurking under lock and key in the hands of someone who won't let it out of his sight, but if it ever materialises there will almost certainly be those who will make use of it to improve what we currently have for the finale of that immensely great but most frustratingly not-quite-complete symphony.

[Thomas Roth]

Haitink and his Concertgebouw from ca 1981. Grand, lovely, intimate, glorious. And when he accents the timpani at the end of the first movement my heart takes an extra beat. Excellent idea.

[Alf-Prufrock]

My current favourite is Harding/Swedish RSO (with the most recent version of the Samale/Mazzuca/Phillips/Cohrs completion). It's not available on commercial CD but various downloads of the Radio broadcast can be found with a little searching. The recording I have is a DAB mp2 from an Afternoon on 3 broadcast a few years ago.

I have looked for this recording on the net but have only found torrent versions. I have never used torrent downloads in my life and will not, as I am dubious about their legality, let alone morality. Is there any other kind of download available anywhere, even if I pay for it?

[Bryn]

I think I noticed one of two non-torrent options while making a quick search before posting about the performance, but I did not make a note of them as I already had the Radio 3 DAB mp2. Of course, being required to pay is no guarantee that the provider is not infringing copyright.

[Richard Tarleton]

My favourite off-air performance is that from Bernard Haitink and the Royal Concertgebouw given on March 8 2009.

This came close to a life-chaging experience for me. I think we were both there, Petrushka. We stared into the abyss in the slow movement. My first live B9 under Mehta was also the occasion of Jacqueline du Pré's last appearance at the RFH, not that we knew that at the time.

I've got a mere 5 recordings and am always left feeling slightly wanting by them - Haitink's first C'bouw, Walter, Davis/LSO, Wand/NDRSO, and Giulini. I hope your Karajan/VPO reappears, it sounds the one.

[amateur51]

I recall that Michael Wilcox wrote in his play Rents about the protagonist's finding a copy of Furtwangler's 'live' recording of Bruckner Symphony No 9 at a ludicrously low price in the racks at a branch of WH Smith. The character says of the recording something akin to 'It sounded like the world was ending'. Maybe its recording date (Berlin 1944 I think) had something to do with it.

I've enjoyed that technically flawed recording many times over the years and have several copies on LP and CD. The word 'titanic' is always associated with it in my mind.

[Roehre]

Haitink and his Concertgebouw from ca 1981. Grand, lovely, intimate, glorious. And when he accents the timpani at the end of the first movement my heart takes an extra beat. Excellent idea.

The idea is not Haitink's but Van Beinum's originally. If you can put hand on Van Beinum's recording of Bruckner 9 you will find the same timpani accentuations (plus additions at the end of the slow movement btw too, a pure Van Beinum addition in that case!). But a brilliant idea it is.

[Karafan]

I was at the 2001 Prom with Gunter Wand and the NDRSO and will never, ever forget it. Can Testament be persuaded to twist the Beeb's arm and provide a CD release? I have a slightly less than adequate radio recording but this legendary performance cries out for issue.

I have 24 versions on CD plus two on DVD and a few off-air recordings. However, the CD recording that, for me, speaks more than any other of the transforming power of the grandeur, terror and deep sadness in this great music is the one by Herbert von Karajan and the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival on July 25 1976. It was released in 1992 by DG as part of the VPO's 150th anniversary and is probably unavailable. In my very humble opinion this is one of those discs that change your life and would be a clear front-runner.

My favourite off-air performance is that from Bernard Haitink and the Royal Concertgebouw given on March 8 2009.

Thank you Petrushka - I had forgotten completely about that recording which is sitting, I know, neglected on my shelf. It is, incidentally, not the live HvK recording of the 9th which appeared on another highly recommendable set from Andante, which is bookeneded between an incandescent (and soundwise, revelatory) Furtwaengler 8 from 1954 and a fine live Boehm 7th from 1976. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vienna-Philh...655804&sr=1-10

I must relisten to the Karajan 9th on the 150th anniversary disc - thanks again for the nudge!

Bws
Karafan

[mathias broucek]

What a great thread! And lots of great performances.

The Furtwanger is one of the great performances of any piece*.

Wand is also outstanding in this piece. I get goosebumps thinking about the first movement coda from an RFH performance with the BBCSO (Sadly the strings messed-up the opening of the finale so it will never be released on CD). I have four of his performances of which the live Lubeck Cathedral one is outstanding.

The Walter is extremely special in the slow movement, especially at the wonderful conclusion. (Apparently Jochum once said to the orchestra of this passage, "Children, it has to become Christmas here").

Jochum's Dresden recording is excellent, especially in the scherzo. His DG recordings (BPO and BRSO) are also good and there's a nice live recording with the Munich PO.

Finally, Celi's Munich PO recording reveals many glorious textual details.

And of course there's Barenboim (BPO rather than Chicago), Karajan (1966 rather than complete cycle), Horenstein (BBCSO), Giulini (Chicago) and........


* (Trivia: the Furtwangler was once used to accompany a short film of Danielle Nardini being sick on a tube train.)

[BBMmk2]

Dresden Staaskapelle, Fabio Luisi and Wiener Philharmoniker, Abbado.