BaL 26.02.11 Bruckner Symphonies

[Nick Armstrong]

And why did the presenter sound so upbeat about the lack of a podcast?

Ah I missed that... Not surprised. I suspect that whereas they can trim the short extracts used in the BAL format to comply with their copyright arrangements, the longer excerpts used in this "latest releases" discussion can't usefully be trimmed in the same way. Why AMcG should be upbeat about it, I've no idea.

[StephenO]

[COLOR="blue"]Whether it was a BAL or it wasn't (and it wasn't), it was a very good hour and a quarter of illustration and discussion

A very good hour certainly but not, as you say, a BAL. I always thought the whole point of BAL was for a reviewer to compare the available versions of a particular work and offer his or her top recommendaton, in the process letting us hear extracts from other recordings of the piece so we could make up our own minds. Hopefully, at some time in the not too distant future, CDR will give us a proper BAL on a Bruckner symphony. Could I suggest No 7 - or has that one been done recently?

[Alison]

At least JJ was a modest commentator, less self aware than Secko or another
Johnson I can think of.

The attempt to find some sort of overriding link on new schools of Bruckner interpretation seemed
the least necessary aspect of the slot.

Needless to say I would put the Haitink Bruckner 5 at the head of the list. Pretty much
rave reviews in IRR and BBCMM for good measure - and others around these parts.
A rendition certainly capable of giving rise to 'new' thoughts and feelings about the Fifth.

[Alison]

ps Wouldn't it be nice to have some new Bruckner recordings from the Vienna
Philharmonic ?

[johnb]

I enjoyed the discussion this morning and, for me, it made a welcome change from the usual format but, of course, it was merely concentrating on a handful of (recently issued?) recordings.

A very good hour certainly but not, as you say, a BAL. I always thought the whole point of BAL was for a reviewer to compare the available versions of a particular work and offer his or her top recommendaton, in the process letting us hear extracts from other recordings of the piece so we could make up our own minds. Hopefully, at some time in the not too distant future, CDR will give us a proper BAL on a Bruckner symphony. Could I suggest No 7 - or has that one been done recently?

I'm in two minds about the normal BAL format. It usually works by a process of elimination - in much the same arbitraty way as one does when vetting a stack of job applications to whittle them down to a handful of candidates. One of my main gripes are that the idea of there being such a thing as the "best" recording is almost always false and I suspect that the reviewer eliminates at least one version that, if asked, he or she would acknowledge as being indispensable to them personally. Recordings are thrown out however unique or good they are overall because they don't comply with the reviewer's idea of a safe all round version. E.g. I find Sofronitsky's recording of the Liszt sonata electrifying but it would never get anywhere in BAL.

[kernelbogey]

Well, yes, BUT actually, what came out clearest for me was Tennstedt and the BPO.

I strongly suspect they maye have gone for Suissse Romande because it's there, it's new, from an unusual provenance, and would get the BAL segment talked about.

It's good, but frankly, is it in the Tennstedt class?

Just heard the finale on CC - and feel rather short-changed by just one movement - but found it didn't quite convince. I think I need that structural sweep in both individual movements in B's symphonies and in the work as a whole that Julian J highlighted as crucial. Of course I could judge only the former here but that overview seemed missing and I didn't warm to the changes of tempi. Perhaps Tennstedt after all, then!

[Alison]

There can be a tendency to 'upgrade' performances of non premier league conductors and orchestras

in my experience.

Here was such an example. How engaging was the orchestral sound really ? Completely adequate

but not really top drawer. Would anyone really be raving if Abbado, Haitink or Tennstedt conducted the work

like Janowski ? I suspect not.

[Bryn]

Agreed, Alison. For me the highlight was the Blomstedt 5th, but then I saw the price. I'll wait until it drops a bit.

[PJPJ]

ps Wouldn't it be nice to have some new Bruckner recordings from the Vienna
Philharmonic ?

I've recently bought on Australian Eloquence Horst Stein's B2 and B6 with the VPO, and was thinking the same as you - the VPO recorded in high resolution sound would be very welcome.

[Alison]

Thanks PJ, the review slot did renew my affection for the Second Symphony.

A gratefully received VPO suggestion !

[DracoM]

There is a lot of dubiously credible, automatic praise for the 'known' and you do wonder how hard the lesser known but possibly inventive are scrutinised and taken seriously. E.G the usual, pavlovian genuflections when JEG puts a new product on the market.

All that deeply patronsing stuff about the Suisse Romande "not having a tradition, and gosh, isn't it surprising they play it so well.........."

[aeolium]

They certainly do have a long tradition, and made some wonderful recordings under Ansermet.

I often think that innocent ear listening, where one does not know who the performers are, would correct quite a lot of criticism on the basis of 'brand rejection' - the idea that only conductor A or orchestra X really knows how to play this music. I'd like every extract on a BaL review for instance to be played without mentioning the identity of the performer(s) until after the excerpt. I know when this has been done by reviewers I have often been surprised by the results.

[Bryn]

So this Suisse Romande tradition (of playing Bruckner, obviously), can you cite a few examples?

[DracoM]

Yes, I'd love to have a BAL that was a 'blind tasting'.

[Thomas Roth]

Carl Schuricht, Symphony no 4, 1961. Gunter Herbig, Symphony no 8, 1996.