Our Summer BAL 12 - Bruckner's 4th Symphony

[Northender]

It's a fait accompli, it seems. On my copy of the Weiner Philharmoniker/Bohm, picked up recently in a charity shop, is a sticker declaring 'The top choice - Building a Library - BBC Radio 3'.

Which year was that, I wonder? (I expect some of our archivists know.)

I recently picked up the Eugen Jochum/Berliner Philharmoniker DG Privilege in a charity shop for £1.50 - a possible contender?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I recently picked up the Eugen Jochum/Berliner Philharmoniker DG Privilege in a charity shop for £1.50 - a possible contender?

[Tony Halstead]

My own personal favourites are ( in no particular order):
Bruno Walter/ Columbia SO - graced by the superb / sublime horn playing of Sinclair Lott, 1st horn at that time of the L.A. Phil
Hans Knappertsbusch - VPO - graced by the superb / sublime horn playing of Gottfried von Freiberg, 1st horn of the Vienna PO
(the original 2 LP Decca set includes a beautiful Wagner 'Siegfried Idyll')
Franz Konwitschny - Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

[scottycelt]

At the risk of appearing a tad too controversial for HS , I remember buying an old LP recording of this very work by Zdenek Macal/Halle, which impressed me greatly ... I think it later appeared on CD but I'm not sure if it's still available.

I agree with the advocates of Wand, Jochum, Bohm and Karajan.

Ferney makes a good point about the Finale, but as always in Bruckner the coda tends to make one forget any perceived previous 'deficiencies' ?

It's strange to think that, not so long ago, the Romantic was the most popular of the symphonies but is now very much out-performed by the last three ...

[PJPJ]

A rather good live performance from Eduard van Beinum and the Concertgebouw in 1952 in quite reasonable sound:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sinfonie-No-4-Concertgebouworkest/dp/B00005KAHL/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1351284152&sr=8-10

and in even better [ambient stereo] sound from Haydn House:

http://www.haydnhouse.com/HH18.htm

Furtwangler's recordings, from 1951, derive from two concerts, one in Stuttgart on 22 October and the other in Munich on 29 October. The earlier is on DG, the latter on Tahra, Orfeo and Archipel, and both are on M&A.

[Hornspieler]

My own personal favourites are ( in no particular order):
Bruno Walter/ Columbia SO - graced by the superb / sublime horn playing of Sinclair Lott, 1st horn at that time of the L.A. Phil
Hans Knappertsbusch - VPO - graced by the superb / sublime horn playing of Gottfried von Freiberg, 1st horn of the Vienna PO
(the original 2 LP Decca set includes a beautiful Wagner 'Siegfried Idyll')Franz Konwitschny - Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

How I would love to have that recording! Gottfried von Freiberg was one of the VPOs greatest horn players of his generation.
The recording is probably in mono only, but that pure liquid sound and supreme accuracy has to be heard to be believed - and on a Viennese horn pitched in F.

Come on waldhorn. Tell us where to find it.

HS

[PJPJ]

How I would love to have that recording! Gottfried von Freiberg was one of the VPOs greatest horn players of his generation.
The recording is probably in mono only, but that pure liquid sound and supreme accuracy has to be heard to be believed - and on a Viennese horn pitched in F.

Come on waldhorn. Tell us where to find it.

HS

http://www.testament.co.uk/shop/product.aspx?id=241

[Bryn]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHxL7rb6PWE

[LeMartinPecheur]

One of my 3 versions is missing from EA's list: a Hallmark CD of the Halle under Skrowaczewski. Looked it up on Amazon: only available from Marketplace sellers. 2 new copies: ulp £64.40 or ulp £172.43. Yet there are many s/h copies for £2.01 up to a fiver.

sometimes I think I don't understand very much about life...

[Madame Suggia]

My Favourite

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbCaFrG5zCI

[Petrushka]

My favourite recording is that with Eugen Jochum and the Concertgebouw in a live 1975 performance on Tahra. There is slightly intrusive audience at times but it matters little; the Concertgebouw play like angels.

If a live performance is ruled out of court my alternative would be VPO/Haitink in an account that is badly under-rated and in need of re-appraisal.

[jayne lee wilson]

More endorsements from me for Klemperer/Phiharmonia, Walter/Columbia SO, and a very strong recommendation for the very hard-to-find Rozhdestvensky (beware poor-quality transfers, Melodiya or Venezia best).

Yes, Knappertsbusch is - or rather sounds - wonderful in Vienna... even if he does indulge in (more than) a little re-orchestration. Vide the very Stokowskian cymbals at the start of the finale coda, the final cadences of which, flattening out the symphony's main motif, sound like a musical solecism; culminating in a Norringtonesque, rabbit-from-the-hat of a throwaway, brusque, last chord. Oh, and he cuts the scherzo reprise**, and... but it's the spirit not the letter, the sound of old Vienna... right?!
Er, right...

A very recent, truly radical reappraisal comes from Mario Venzago with the Basle SO on CPO. You'll get a few shocks - well, fewer than with Knappertsbusch -but you're unlikely to be bored!
And incidentally, the 1874 version has WAY more than just a different (very bizarre) scherzo to frighten the listening horses. It is a very different score, which tends to sound like the work-in-progress it probably amounts to. True Brucknerians should hear it, but of all the versions of all the symphonies, the original 4th is the one I find hardest to get through - indeed, the ONLY one (apart, perhaps, from the all-too-familiar 1889 3rd) that I really struggle with.

**Just listened to this again. Oh. My. God.
Rather worse than I remembered. Speechless. Well, as close as I get.
Oh, wait a minute...
Yes, he also does this on his 1944 live Berlin account. Consistency has its merits...

[John Shelton]

I remember Harnoncourt's Concertgebouw recording being a fine performance. Venzago looks interesting - add a vote for Herreweghe.

[BBMmk2]

I have Karajan, Abbado and Jochum(The Abbado with the Wiener Philharmoniker).

I am intrigued with the Harnoncourt/Concertgebouw? The two Wand recrodings and Tennstedt's as well!

[salymap]

I'm not keen on Bruckner but have a box set of ancient recordings. I have Karl Bohm and the Staatskapelle, Dresden for no 4.

Recorded in 1936 and remastered although one would never know it.