BaL 19.03.22 - Bruckner: Symphony no. 9 in D minor

[Serial_Apologist]

Well yes but I've always found his finales rather ragged sounding and the number of ‘consultants’ involved in versions rather excessive for a great composer - I can’t think of another composer who needed this, or maybe others did not own up to it!

Vaughan Williams, for one - drawing on a small cabal of younger composers for advice and criticism for his seventh, eighth and, I believe, ninth symphonies.

[HighlandDougie]

Gurnemanz's mention of Carl Schuricht on WAYLTN has reminded me of my first Bruckner 9 - Schuricht with the Vienna Philharmonic (in mono - it was cheap). Latterly reissued by EMI as one of its short-lived SACD issues - and sounding glorious. Never a fashionable conductor but a fine Brucknerian.

[Bryn]

Gurnemanz's mention of Carl Schuricht on WAYLTN has reminded me of my first Bruckner 9 - Schuricht with the Vienna Philharmonic (in mono - it was cheap). Latterly reissued by EMI as one of its short-lived SACD issues - and sounding glorious. Never a fashionable conductor but a fine Brucknerian.

Indeed, along with the three 'completed' movements of the 9th.



One of several EMI SACDs I snapped up at bargain prices, back in the day.

[parkepr]

That BBC Music Mag version with Klee was how I first got to know the work: the Liverpool Cathedral acoustic makes for a very special sound (similar, I'm sure, to the Wand Cologne Cathedral recordings, which I've only read about). No doubt the huge echo delays contributed to Klee's very spacious tempo for the 3rd movement: longer, even, than Giulini's. Klee's first movement is distinctly faster than Giulini's: it's this, for me, over spacious first movement which lets the Giulini down.

The second version I heard, in the early 90's, was my father's disc of the Walter, as on Mival's shortlist. I remember well being shocked by the close, unatmospheric recording (the polar opposite of Klee's), and later, terminally irritated by the sloppy playing. The flutes get totally out of time at the end of the 3rd movement (between W and X if you're interested) - and, even in the short extract played in Record Review, the oboe got a quaver ahead. I can’t think how it all got past the producer!

I see from my score's annotations that I’ve owned a dozen different versions; recently, I've streamed several others. And my favourite, for both the quality of the recording, and for that of the performance, is the recent Honeck/Pittsburgh one.

Thanks for mentioning Bernhard Klee and the BBC Philharmonic... That was my first introduction to the work and I love the cavernous acoustic.... I also have an off air recoding of the LSO and Daniel Harding at St.Pauls cathedral....

My first live experience was BBC Symphony Orchestra and Gunter Wand at the RFH.... What an experience!!!!

[Goon525]

Nearly four months late, I listened to the winning VPO/Giulini this morning. It is a truly great performance (and well recorded, with the sheer power of the climaxes coming across superbly), and Giulini justifies his very slow speeds by a captivating interpretation which fully holds the attention. I’m very glad I’ve heard it, but do wonder a bit about its selection as a BaL choice. It’s eight or nine minutes longer than an average performance - that’s a huge difference in a work that normally lasts an hour. Is that too eccentric? I suppose it boils down to what a library choice should be. Good solid middle of the road, or is weird and wonderful perfectly ok?