Now that this survey is under way, has anyone here heard the 4th, 1st or 3rd yet. I note that QOBUZ has the 3rd replete with digital booklet which advises that he used the 1888/89 version in the Nowak edition. I am not that taken with most Gergiev recordings but am intriqued to find what he makes of Bruckner. Just a shame he did not use the 1873 original version.
-
-
I hope it’s better than his Mahler!Originally posted by Bryn View Post -
In my opinion, that would not take much doing. I am listening to this late revision of the Bruckner 3rd at the moment and it seems rather well done (laptop speakers, admittedly).Originally posted by cloughie View PostComment
-
Did you by any chance hear the Mahler 8 in St Paul’s? Dreadful, but perhaps not all Gergiev’s fault - the acoustics are/were abysmal. The LSO live recording almost made it sound bearable.Originally posted by Bryn View PostComment
-
The new Gergiev Bruckner 1 & 3 were recorded live in The Basilica of the Monastery of St. Florian, so there's an acoustic invitation at least...
Very grand it looks, richly ornamented, long, tall and very narrow; the sort of reverberant space that may encourage moderate tempi...I just hope Gergiev's Bruckner isn't too grand, and better than moderate.
Might try No.1 later...Comment
-
Have to see if it’s on Spotify Premium.Don’t cry for me
I go where music was born
J S Bach 1685-1750Comment
-
BRUCKNER SYMPHONY NO.1 (Linz version ed.Nowak). MUNICH PO/GERGIEV. Rec. 9/2017, Stiftsbasilika St. Florian. MPHIL Records, streamed via Qobuz HiFi.
Not much fiery, saucy passion about the 1st movement of Gergiev’s Bruckner 1: whose very steady tread seems to express more of a dogged obduracy; nor do the brasses cut through to enliven the texture, and clarity does suffer a little in this reverberant monasterial space. The tuttis are often rather thick and heavy, the dynamics earthbound.
The MPO have very beautiful strings, and Gergiev makes the most of them: he slows….right….down for lyrical episodes, drawing them out and dwelling on their lovely tone; and given the moderate basic pace, at some loss to the momentum of what should surely be a more excitable, youthfully adventurous piece. (This is even truer of the finale, I’m afraid…).
“Early Bruckner in the style of stereotyped later Bruckner” I thought.
So it goes on: an adagio, and a trio, with string playing of great beauty and delicacy, a scherzo waspishly fast but feeling hurried and featureless, without much character or subtlety; no instinctive sense of tempo relations across the symphony. (Gergiev’s vocal urgings all too obvious, without much evidence of orchestral reciprocation…).
Into the finale and the orchestral confidence seems to waver, clarity and articulation less than ideal, and even slower gesangsperioden. That marvellous moment when the development crashes into the recap is entirely without cumulative excitement - tempi way too steady when the orchestra should be reaping the whirlwind - and even the final cadence sounds laboured, over-emphatic.
***
I’m not even sure the much-vaunted St. Florian acoustic helps this music, or much early Bruckner at all really. But I never bought the line - which thankfully we hear less of these days - that this music needs large resonant spaces to make sense. Perhaps, with some styles of interpretation it may suit the chorales and conclusions of, say, the 5th and 8th Symphonies; but elsewhere.…
Especially in Symphonies 1-3 and 6, my ears crave a tighter, drier sound: gutty rhythmic drive, melodic warmth, cutting-edge brass; not usually much experienced in basilicas - or cathedrals.
Ideal Bruckner 1st? If you haven’t yet heard it, find your way to Volkmar Andreae and the VSO in 1953 (Music & Arts): swift and sharply-cut; emotionally volatile, dynamically stunning; a performance of such brazen adventurousness, instinctive pace and melodic beauty that your Brucknerian world will shift upon its axis...Comment
-
Not much to look forward to then?Don’t cry for me
I go where music was born
J S Bach 1685-1750Comment
-
Well you can hear the MPO do Bruckner with Celi, Wand and Jochum so I’ve no real desire to hear it with Gergiev (albeit those gents didn’t record the 1st).
Jayne - have you hear Solti’s Bruckner 1. He’s very good with early Bruckner: plays it like Schubert rather than late BrucknerComment
-
That was very exciting, wasn't it? Especially when it came out, but I haven't heard it for ages.... now I would pick Venzago, Tintner or Blomstedt off the shelf for both Schubertian and pastoral evocations....Originally posted by mathias broucek View Post
But I do have a more recently-discovered all-time mindblower: Vienna Symphony/Volkmar Andreae - 1953 mono, wondrously restored by Aaron Z. Snyder on Music & Arts, in a box with the very first ever complete cycle. (Available on Qobuz, if you have it)...
It's 1877 Haas, comes in at....43'08... pretty nifty then! But never seems rushed....try to find a way of hearing it, it's a Brucknerian life-changer.
Comment
-
Thanks for the Andreae/QOBUZ tip. I will investigate, if only via streaming.Originally posted by jayne lee wilson View PostComment
Comment