Our Summer BAL 12 - Bruckner's 4th Symphony

[Barbirollians]

Unfortunately , despite BBC Legends disinterring many superb Barbirolli Bruckner interpretations ( his 8th is for me the most satisfying of all recordings of that symphony - there does not appear to be a 4th !

I think Karajan's 4th and 7th on EMI are two of his finest records . Indeed , I would say together with that wild Testament Brahms 1 - probably best of all.

[Thomas Roth]

Böhm/VPO, Haitink/LSO, Blomstedt/Dresden. A new recording by Blomstedt with Gewandhaus is out now on Querstand.

[PJPJ]

Böhm/VPO, Haitink/LSO, Blomstedt/Dresden. A new recording by Blomstedt with Gewandhaus is out now on Querstand.

I haven't heard the Gewandhaus recording - what do you think of it?

[BBMmk2]

I have the Karajan(EMI) and the Abbado(DG).It's amazing how succesful this work is in the recording studio.I think Abb ado has the edge though on this work.

[verismissimo]

I'm planning to invest in a new (to me) cycle, and Jochum/EMI and Wand are both at silly prices on Amazon.

But which to go for?

[Barbirollians]

Here is RO's interesting article on the Bruckner 4 http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page...mL#header-logo

[PaulT]

Thanks for posting RO's fascinating article - pity about the typos in Gramophone!

Bruno Walter's recording was my introduction to Bruckner - an LP bought in a sale for 50p when I was a student in the early 1970's. I recall never having heard such great music before and was completely bowled over by it. Bought the CD some years later and its still my favourite version out of Wand (BPO), Karajan (1975), Haitink (Concertgebouw), Jochum (BPO), Bohm and Celibidache. In fact I have never got on with the latter two, especially the Celi which just seems too deliberate and ultimately uninvolving.

[AjAjAjH]

Thanks for these ideas, I don't have a Bruckner 4 at present. I used to have the Halle/Zdenek Macal recording on cassette which I always thought was rather good. Much better than their live recording when the Principal Horn cracked a good deal of his exposed entries.

I think I'll wait to purchases a new recording until after I've heard Marcus Stenz conduct it with the Halle next season.

By the way, have any of you read next season's Halle brochure. Mark Elder in his intro mentions that Marcus Stenz is to conduct Bruckner in Manchester for the first time. Then who was it who conducted a superb Bruckner 5 two seasons ago?

I've pointed the mistake out to the Halle office and was told they couldn't reprint the prospectus but would change the website but they hadn't done it the last time I looked.

[Richard Tarleton]

If I'm tempted by another, it would be Columbia/Walter. Opinion, please, RT.

I listened to it after the tennis. I've had the LP for over 40 years. My 2002 Penguin Guide says the 1960 recording is "transformed by its CD mastering, with textures clearer, strings full and brass sonorous", which makes me want to get the CD. The copy Petrushka has is on Amazon for an eye-watering £59. There's also this, second hand...

The interpretation is splendid, of course.

[Petrushka]

I've just listened again to my own recommendation, the live 1975 Concertgebouw/Jochum and am completely bowled over anew. The playing of the Concertgebouw here is intensely beautiful and caught on the wing by Dutch Radio it is a thing of wonder. As so often with this orchestra they still sound beautiful even at full tilt with each department here in glorious form. The audience is occasionally in evidence but it doesn't much matter.

Anyone who loves the Bruckner 4 will love it even more after hearing this. It could well be the best £12 you've ever spent and you won't regret it.

[Barbirollians]

I listened to it after the tennis. I've had the LP for over 40 years. My 2002 Penguin Guide says the 1960 recording is "transformed by its CD mastering, with textures clearer, strings full and brass sonorous", which makes me want to get the CD. The copy Petrushka has is on Amazon for an eye-watering £59. There's also this, second hand...

The interpretation is splendid, of course.

Isn't this the Bruckner 4 with Walter ? http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/sea...kner+4+walter+

[Roehre]

I've just listened again to my own recommendation, the live 1975 Concertgebouw/Jochum and am completely bowled over anew. The playing of the Concertgebouw here is intensely beautiful and caught on the wing by Dutch Radio it is a thing of wonder. As so often with this orchestra they still sound beautiful even at full tilt with each department here in glorious form. The audience is occasionally in evidence but it doesn't much matter.

Anyone who loves the Bruckner 4 will love it even more after hearing this. It could well be the best £12 you've ever spent and you won't regret it.

I only can agree wholeheartedly

[akiralx]

Here is RO's interesting article on the Bruckner 4 http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page...mL#header-logo

Excellent survey - it also explains an occasion when in the lamented Classical Record Shop in Leeds i heard a very fiery and powerful B4 being played: Graham Bennett the owner revealed it was Karajan's 1970s DG recording. When I listened later it seemed to have some febrile and weird octave doublings in the high strings in the first movement, which RO discusses.

I would agree with all the proponents of Bohm and Celi, but also agree with RO that Klemperer's swift EMI recording is very good.

I also have on SACD Vanska's 1888 version and Nagano's 1874 version - the latter very different.

[Richard Tarleton]

Yes! Thank you Barbirollians. I see on closer inspection the one Petrushka has is a coupling of 4 and 9 - still a bit pricey though.

Anyway thank you again - time for the LP to move over and make way for a digitally remastered copy.

[Richard Tarleton]

Here is RO's interesting article on the Bruckner 4 http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page...mL#header-logo

Here's what RO says of the Walter/CSO:-

The first truly memorable recording of the Fourth was made by Bruno Walter and the Columbia SO in 1960, using the 1953 Nowak edition. The orchestra was specially assembled for the octogenarian Walter, who had retired to Beverly Hills, the players handpicked from the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the great Hollywood studio orchestras, many of whose musicians were émigrés from pre-war Europe. From the first oboe downwards, they are consummate craftsman. The recording, too, remains one of the finest ever made, with superb depth of field and a wide but well focused stereo spread. As with Walter's Mahler recordings, thematic detail is crystal clear though never at the expense of appropriate atmosphere. Walter's feel for the music's Austrian character and countrified charm is second to none but there is brightness and motion, too. The opening horn call is a true aubade and no conductor spells Out Bruckner's characteristic two-plus-three rhythmic motifs better than him. In the slow movement he creates exactly the right "processional" feel while at the same time conjuring forth playing of visionary beauty in the long-drawn viola subject.