BaL 20.02.21 - Bruckner: Symphony no. 6

[Ein Heldenleben]

...or Georg Solti !

Or Barenboim - I wonder if they come into the ‘monumental without momentum ‘ category for TS ?

[visualnickmos]

Amongst my own Bruckner sixes, I have Klemperer's; although I am very much a Klempy fan, I find his Bruckner (and Mahler) not amongst his best 'engravings'

Ticiati - not to my taste at all; too much of a spring in his step.

Blomstedt - loved the extract(s) played.

Celibidache - to my own total surprise, I found this very tempting indeed.

[Maclintick]

not surprised by the winner but I find those Jochum recordings,early digital rather glaring .

I rather enjoyed all the Klemperer excerpts .

I agree. Klemps gets classy playing from the NPO in top-quality EMI Kingsway Hall 60s sound, engineered by Robert Gooch. TS's chosen version holed below the waterline by blaringly out-of-tune brass at climactic moments, I'm afraid. Blomstedt only featured once, to TS's approval, but I liked what I heard there.

[Alison]

I am surprised and disappointed Dausgaard didn’t get a mention especially as he would appear, to me at least, to meet many of Toms criteria, that sense of imagination and daring that modern interpreters were broadly thought to lack.

[DracoM]

[Ein Heldenleben]

I agree. Klemps gets classy playing from the NPO in top-quality EMI Kingsway Hall 60s sound, engineered by Robert Gooch. TS's chosen version holed below the waterline by blaringly out-of-tune brass at climactic moments, I'm afraid. Blomstedt only featured once, to TS's approval, but I liked what I heard there.

Good to see that I’m not the only one who hears that.It’s also mentioned in the Amazon reviews. I listened to the Jochum set last year after Solti and Barenboim with the Chicago Symphony (all free on Amazon Prime). The contrast between the two brass sections could not be more stark. I’m amazed that , given how important the brass are In Bruckner , Jochum put up with it.

[underthecountertenor]

You could at least wait till he's finished before shouting at us in bold type.

[jayne lee wilson]

I'll listen to this BaL this evening (after a rather important football match) but - yes, a shade disappointed in the choices. Not, absolutely not, because they differ from any I might shortlist, but because on the face of it they look a little safe and retrogressive. But I'll scrutinise his observations....

I never was that taken by the part-rec Furtwängler anyway (I almost always prefer Knappertsbuch to Furtwangler in Bruckner; Kna seems to me far more instinctively attuned to the idiomatic tradition, where Furtwängler takes the Tragic Burden of History upon his, and Bruckner's, shoulders...)....recalling the classic 1949 VPO 7th, what a 6th Kna might have given us...).
As for Jochum.... I'll revisit the latter off the 2000 CD set, telling myself (resignedly) that at least it will be nice to hear the Staatskapelle again...

I guess no other historicals got a mention today? Not even Rosbaud?

[Nick Armstrong]

I agree. Klemps gets classy playing from the NPO in top-quality EMI Kingsway Hall 60s sound, engineered by Robert Gooch.

I’ve tried again with this recording, I just find it moribund, however well-played and recorded. I just don’t get it at all.

I hastened through this BAL, dwelling on the extracts but fast-forwarding through a lot of the breathless commentary by TS to whom I’m afraid I remain allergic. A pity, as I warm to his basic mindset against pasteurised, homogenised Bruckner.

Blomstedt & Furtwängler remain in the ears; I have the Jochum/Dresden box but don’t think I ever listened to the 6th from it so that probably needs to be rectified.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I’ve tried again with this recording, I just find it moribund, however well-played and recorded. I just don’t get it at all.

I hastened through this BAL, dwelling on the extracts but fast-forwarding through a lot of the breathless commentary by TS to whom I’m afraid I remain allergic. A pity, as I warm to his basic mindset against pasteurised, homogenised Bruckner.

Blomstedt & Furtwängler remain in the ears; I have the Jochum/Dresden box but don’t think I ever listened to the 6th from it so that probably needs to be rectified.

For me the giveaway with the Klemperer is the opening ‘morse code’ C# repeated figure in the violins. It just can’t be meant to go that slowly . Incidentally does any one know whether the bowing instructions in the score (1952 Nowak Austrian National Library Complete edition ) are Bruckner’s own ? Talk about meticulous...

[jayne lee wilson]

I took a quick listen to Furtwangler in (iii) and (iv)...... a sweetly evocative trio (pity about the horn bloop though), yes, but the scherzo still seems too quick and charmless (it often is at anything significantly under 8'); intonation and articulation suffer here.
The finale has - almost continuous rubato (good) and very wide-ranging tempi (also good) but for me, Furtwangler overdoes the gesang/allegro contrast
with some loss of coherence and, in the (much) quicker sections, again a loss of articulation and rhythmic momentum: not much 2+3 schwung here. I still find the coda disappointingly headlong too.

So for me this finale does nothing that say, Andreae or Rosbaud at one end, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin at the other (in their different ways), do as well or better; with more natural or flowing transitions and (in 1961 or 2013) far better sound....
But I guess I should listen to Tom, who I'm sure will have presented his exposition very well, before commenting further...

***
The much-admired (G., RO, 2/91) 1988 Wand performance got here today so - still much to do......!

[Nick Armstrong]

For me the giveaway with the Klemperer is the opening ‘morse code’ C# repeated figure in the violins. It just can’t be meant to go that slowly

I completely agree. It never recovers from that, to my ears.

Celibidache - to my own total surprise, I found this very tempting indeed.

Yes, me too, I meant to mention it in my earlier post

[jayne lee wilson]

I completely agree. It never recovers from that, to my ears.



Yes, me too, I meant to mention it in my earlier post

With a 17' majestoso (slower than Klemperer & with almost no variation...sort of thing clichés such as "marmoreal" or "monumental" were coined for... in this case, possibly with some justification) and a 22' adagio (exhausting, rather than beggaring, description) it is rather important to hear the whole Celibidache performance...
Assuming you can get through it in one go.........

A Brucknerian conception (or "vision" as Celi's devotees would prefer) based almost entirely on sound, ranking far below Klemperer for me in symphonic, overall-architectural-coherence, let alone cogency. It won't be coming off my shelf anytime soon.

[jonfan]

A very strange BAL where one of the top recommendations is a recording that is incomplete and from a Nazi Germany where, personally, I don't want to hear any recordings from that source; Bruckner deserves better!
I was brought up being told by Gramophone reviewers that the Klemperer was the only Bruckner 6 to take seriously; nicely exposed today. The Jochum a very acceptable front runner in a huge field [we didn't hear many unfortunately]. I sampled some LP's of the EMI Jochum when they came out and found the brass too brash and unpleasant but my download today from Presto was excellent and exciting with no hint of anything unpleasant; maybe the originals have been tamed a little? I have the Jochum BRSO from 1967 and the interpretation was basically the same in the 1980's

[vinteuil]

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I enjoyed this a lot. I often find Tom Service tiresome, but today he provided a very interesting approach. I liked some of his images - describing the cosmic effect of the end of the first movement in Wand's recording, with the little planets happily circling...

Of the versions he considered I was particularly taken by the Blomstedt (I have the Leipzig but didn't know the San Francisco), the Wand, and (much to my surprise) the Celibidache - and was convinced by his final choice of the Dresden Jochum. It was good to hear the Furtwangler, and to hear Tom Service's comments in favour of its demonic intensity.

A worthwhile forty-five minutes...


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