BaL 20.02.21 - Bruckner: Symphony no. 6

[gurnemanz]

I suspect I'll be standing by my favourite of three recordings I have - Colin Davis on LSO live. A fine reminder of this conductor who I enjoyed so much in my first live concert experiences at the Proms in the late 60s and also of sitting in the front row at the Gewandhaus in the the early 70s and being blown off my chair during my first live concert of this work.

[jayne lee wilson]

I suspect I'll be standing by my favourite of three recordings I have - Colin Davis on LSO live. A fine reminder of this conductor who I enjoyed so much in my first live concert experiences at the Proms in the late 60s and also of sitting in the front row at the Gewandhaus in the the early 70s and being blown off my chair during my first live concert of this work.

Fine reading, yes. I can just about take the majestoso-very-moderato of Davis' Klempereresque 1st movement, but the scherzo lumbers a bit, and despite beautiful playing, the 19'49 adagio is a bridge too far, or long, for me. Not far off Celibidache pace.

Try Rattle for an LSO Live Refresh!
Veils of Patina dissolved away, statues thrown into rivers, etc....

[Barbirollians]

Fine reading, yes. I can just about take the majestoso-very-moderato of Davis' Klempereresque 1st movement, but the scherzo lumbers a bit, and despite beautiful playing, the 19'49 adagio is a bridge too far, or long, for me. Not far off Celibidache pace.

Try Rattle for an LSO Live Refresh!
Veils of Patina dissolved away, statues thrown into rivers, etc....

I miss Richard Osborne on BAL - even if you disagreed with him I always found them fascinating and indeed his 1980s Interpretations on Record on Mahler 6 entirely opened my ears to the piece outside the Barbirolli recording !

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

When compiling the list, I noticed the larger than normal number of SACDs for this work. The format is far from dead.

[Barbirollians]

RO of that vintage would, IIRC, have favoured Klemperer and the Chicago SO/Barenboim .... later he was very taken with the SWR (then Stuttgart)/Norrington (Gramophone 11/2008, with some interesting comments re. Klemperer...)...

Yes he used to say Klemperer was in a class of his own until Norrington came along.

[Alison]

When compiling the list, I noticed the larger than normal number of SACDs for this work. The format is far from dead.

[Bryn]

When compiling the list, I noticed the larger than normal number of SACDs for this work. The format is far from dead.

Unfortunately, it is as far as Decca/Universal, Sony/BMG, Warner, Hyperion et al are concerned. Thank goodness for the likes of BIS and Chandos.

[richardfinegold]

When compiling the list, I noticed the larger than normal number of SACDs for this work. The format is far from dead.

Classical Music lovers have kept it going, and more in the Orient. Bruckner is increasingly popular there and thus the preponderance of SACD. Bruckner and Mahler are frequently linked, and of course there are dissimilarity between them than common elements. However, both benefited from the Hi Fidelity revolution, first in stereo and then in Higher Resolution Formats.
And in Multichannel, when done properly, one gets a feeling of a Cathedral like spaces. The Simone Young Bruckner series on Oehms is a great illustration of this. The rear speakers are used to provide ambience . One can really get a sense of the conductor waiting for the reverberation to decay before giving a downbeat.
Speaking of SACD, I note that the Blomstedt/Leipzig Sixth isn’t on the list. The 3rd from that set won one of these shoot outs a bit back, and the 6th is very fine. That was a limited edition, expensive set so perhaps nla.
The Sixth is my favorite Bruckner Symphony. I like the Haitink/Bavaria that Petrushka endorsed but my favorites are Wand with a German Radio Orchestra, Karajan, and Stan S.

[Bryn]

Classical Music lovers have kept it going, and more in the Orient. Bruckner is increasingly popular there and thus the preponderance of SACD. Bruckner and Mahler are frequently linked, and of course there are dissimilarity between them than common elements. However, both benefited from the Hi Fidelity revolution, first in stereo and then in Higher Resolution Formats.
And in Multichannel, when done properly, one gets a feeling of a Cathedral like spaces. The Simone Young Bruckner series on Oehms is a great illustration of this. The rear speakers are used to provide ambience . One can really get a sense of the conductor waiting for the reverberation to decay before giving a downbeat.
Speaking of SACD, I note that the Blomstedt/Leipzig Sixth isn’t on the list. The 3rd from that set won one of these shoot outs a bit back, and the 6th is very fine. That was a limited edition, expensive set so perhaps nla.
The Sixth is my favorite Bruckner Symphony. I like the Haitink/Bavaria that Petrushka endorsed but my favorites are Wand with a German Radio Orchestra, Karajan, and Stan S.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Symphony-No-6-Gewandhausorchester-Leipzig/dp/B001TN0VLU

https://www.amazon.com/Symphony-No-6-Gewandhausorchester-Leipzig/dp/B001TN0VLU

[richardfinegold]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Symphony-No.../dp/B001TN0VLU

https://www.amazon.com/Symphony-No-6.../dp/B001TN0VLU

Excellent to have it individually available

[Bryn]

Excellent to have it individually available

That's how I got each of them, as they were released.

[jayne lee wilson]

Classical Music lovers have kept it going, and more in the Orient. Bruckner is increasingly popular there and thus the preponderance of SACD. Bruckner and Mahler are frequently linked, and of course there are dissimilarity between them than common elements. However, both benefited from the Hi Fidelity revolution, first in stereo and then in Higher Resolution Formats.
And in Multichannel, when done properly, one gets a feeling of a Cathedral like spaces. The Simone Young Bruckner series on Oehms is a great illustration of this. The rear speakers are used to provide ambience . One can really get a sense of the conductor waiting for the reverberation to decay before giving a downbeat.
Speaking of SACD, I note that the Blomstedt/Leipzig Sixth isn’t on the list. The 3rd from that set won one of these shoot outs a bit back, and the 6th is very fine. That was a limited edition, expensive set so perhaps nla.
The Sixth is my favorite Bruckner Symphony. I like the Haitink/Bavaria that Petrushka endorsed but my favorites are Wand with a German Radio Orchestra, Karajan, and Stan S.

Don't forget LSO Live still issue SACDs - as I said in #2, both the LSO/Rattle and the Bergen/Dausgaard on BIS are SACDs and both musically and sonically exceptional - really fresh and individual appraisals.

[Goon525]

Not expressing a view on SACD, but it’s hard to believe that anything recorded in the Barbican can be ‘sonically exceptional’ - adequate for sure, but not much more. Having said that, I’d better actually listen to the Rattle to make sure I’m not talking nonsense! Last one I heard was BRSO/Haitink, excellent from all points of view.

[jayne lee wilson]

I went off the LSO Live CDs for months or even years at one time (though the Faulkner 176.4 derivations were much better).
Latterly, the experience of the JEG Mendelssohn in 24/96/192, then the SACD box of that and the Schumann cycle, and this Rattle 6th, forced me to reconsider.....much better, at least in the Barbican context; and genuinely enjoyable.

[Katzelmacher]

This will be an interesting one as, to this day, only one recording of this work seems to receive all-round acclaim (that’s Klemperer way back in ‘64). Karajan’s sight-reading (that’s what it sounds like) is the black spot on his integrale.

I like Blomstedt’s San Francisco recording, but I’m almost certainly wrong to do so.