Bruckner 6

[jayne lee wilson]

Which issue of the Klemperer Kingsway 6th was that Petrushka? As I noted recently, both the EMI Studio and EMI GROC masterings sound fine here - indeed exceptional, even by the usual 60s Kingsway standards....

Still hoping to get around the new Haitink (very keen on his 1970 RCOA one), but Mum's very poorly again (change of meds not going well...) and the best I can hope for is fitting in a Mozart Symphony around the margins of the day, or within the inevitable sleeplessness of the dawn.... but it's my present addiction so...that's OK! Come to think of it, Ligeti offers usefully un-Brucknerian timescales too. Now there's a combination...
A shame that the Rosbaud** B6 is box-locked; fascinating, keen to revisit....

I do see the work as, along with No.2, standing at a slight angle to the Brucknerian universe , but I haven't time to elaborate right now.

(**autocorrect WILL keep saying "Rosebud"....

[Petrushka]

Which issue of the Klemperer Kingsway 6th was that Petrushka? As I noted recently, both the EMI Studio and EMI GROC masterings sound fine here - indeed exceptional, even by the usual 60s Kingsway standards....

I had the EMI Studio recording which I bought in 1990 after reading Richard Osborne's enthusiastic Gramophone review and have it now in the Warner Klemperer box of his Bruckner recordings. It still sounds overbearing to my ears, even with a volume cut way below my normal setting, and have given up on it. Most of the OK recordings in the other boxes (I have them all) come across splendidly. Perhaps I should try again.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This is the symphony of which a single Furtwängler recording exists, but there is a movement missing.

[Barbirollians]

Perhaps this recent thread could be merged with the one opened yesterday ?

[Beef Oven!]

I've finally added the Sawallisch to my collection - thanks Caliban for identifying this recording and Petrushka for endorsing its 'must-have' status.

Also, the Solti CSO is now in my pocession, following richardfinegold's advocacy.

I've just listened through both Klemperer's New Philharmonia and Horst Stein's VPO, back to back. My jury is still out on Klemperer, but the Stein is a wonderful performance, IMHO. Is it partly due to the VPO being such a good Bruckner (and much else) orchestra?

[kea]

My library picks would be Sawallisch/Bayerische Staatsorchester, Blomstedt/Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, & Norrington/RSO Stuttgart, although I'd also want to make space for Stein/Vienna, Celibidache/Munich, Leitner/Baden-Baden & Freiburg, and Davies/Linz despite having certain reservations about all of them.

[Dave2002]

Despite my dismissal of Wand, his Sixth is the best of his cycle, and has been ripped to my music server before the set gets tossed

Are the rules different in the US? Technically I don't think in the UK and EU we are allowed to rip CDs and then sell them on. Not sure what happens if we simply dump them. Can't you put them (Wand CDs etc.) in a box and then in a store room or loft?
OK - we are definitely not allowed to rip CDs in the UK due to a reversal of legal permission a year or too back - but like driving over speed limits (sometimes substantially) I guess "everyone" does it.

I've not heard the 6th for quite a while, so this thread is likely to spur me to listen. I had Skrowaczewski's 3rd on a few times recently. Probably now I'll turn my attention to 6 and dig out Karajan and Wand - and maybe I've got Klemperer lurking somewhere too. I definitely have Tintner - so let the listening commence. I'll have to use streaming or downloads for some of the more unusual ones - such as D.R.Davies/Linz which have/has been suggested a few posts back.

[Alain Maréchal]

Does a Carl Schuricht recording of it exist? His manner in Bruckner is lyrical and flowing, and I feel it would be just right for No. 6.

[Dave2002]

Does a Carl Schuricht recording of it exist? His manner in Bruckner is lyrical and flowing, and I feel it would be just right for No. 6.

Some while back I devised a way of checking against web sites. Your query is easy enough to check though - just do searches for terms such as "Schuricht Bruckner 6" and see what comes back.

My previous way - which I have temporarily forgotten, would allow me to search for terms such as "(Walter|Ormandy|Szell|Bernstein|Reiner) Bruckner 6" - so the list of conductors or performers could be rather large and would quite quickly find possible web pages to check for.

I've just done this kind of check by a manual process and found these about Bernstein -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4K-GsihakU - the story about Bernstein playing a symphony which he claimed he didn't like is remarkable - though is it fake news?

It seems he only ever conducted the 6th and 9th. There is a live performance of the 6th with the NYPO in this box set - http://www.musicweb-international.co...stein_Live.htm though I don't know if it's still available.

There's also a YouTube - I don't know if this is "genuine" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxS0k_Z7_Z4

[Petrushka]

Some while back I devised a way of checking against web sites. Your query is easy enough to check though - just do searches for terms such as "Schuricht Bruckner 6" and see what comes back.

My previous way - which I have temporarily forgotten, would allow me to search for terms such as "(Walter|Ormandy|Szell|Bernstein|Reiner) Bruckner 6" - so the list of conductors or performers could be rather large and would quite quickly find possible web pages to check for.

I've just done this kind of check by a manual process and found these about Bernstein -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4K-GsihakU - the story about Bernstein playing a symphony which he claimed he didn't like is remarkable - though is it fake news?

It seems he only ever conducted the 6th and 9th. There is a live performance of the 6th with the NYPO in this box set - http://www.musicweb-international.co...stein_Live.htm though I don't know if it's still available.

There's also a YouTube - I don't know if this is "genuine" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxS0k_Z7_Z4

All three of those Bernstein Bruckner 6 performances are identical, that is the source for the youTube clips is the 1976 live broadcast included in the NYPO box. As the NYPO themselves issued that box there shouldn't be any doubts about it being genuine.

[BBMmk2]

I heard the Bavrians under Haitink and it's the only recording I have liked so far!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

All the Threads on Bruckner #6 that I can find on the Forum (dating back to 2011) are now merged.

[Richard Barrett]

I hope I'll be excused for not trawling through the entire thread to see if I've said any of this before (or contradicted it!) but the first Bruckner 6 I got to know was Celibidache's Munich recording which I keep returning to despite brief affairs with Venzago and Klemperer. However, I really need to get to know the Karajan, that might be very much to my taste. I don't really understand why it has "minor" status among the symphonies; for me it sits well between 5 and 7 without being inferior to either. What I look for in the first movement is (a) absolute precision in the opening violin rhythm and all the material that evolves from it; (b) a careful balancing in the brass, especially in their first entry, so that the trumpets don't always dominate - this is generally true for me for many of Bruckner's brass-heavy textures (eg. the end of 8) but in 6/i there's always the danger of the "Western film music" association popping up, especially if the timpanist is too enthusiastic with his/her galloping. I'm used to Celi's slow second movement and as a result find most others a bit rushed. I wish it were possible to hear Giulini or Abbado in this symphony. Looking down the available recordings I see there's one by Michael Gielen - I think that might be something I'll investigate soon.

[richardfinegold]

I've never understood the neglect of the Bruckner 6 in the concert hall nor its reputation as a 'lesser' symphony. In my younger days, I took this at face value and it was therefore the last Bruckner symphony I came too - yes, including the '0'. I bought the Klemperer when it appeared on CD in 1990 but disliked it from the outset finding the fierce, overloading sound hard to bear and the orchestral timbre not what I would have expected in Bruckner. I tried once or twice later but found it a frustrating listen and still cannot understand the high regard in which this recording is held.

The game changer for me came in 1997 when I heard the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly in a Sunday afternoon concert in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, and it was a revelation. Here was the genuine Bruckner sound and everything just fell into place. I've heard it live just once more: Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin at the 2016 Proms.

Wand (with the NDR SO), Karajan and especially Solti are all excellent recordings but the new Haitink is the one that will convince you more than any that the 6th is fully worthy of standing alongside 7, 8 & 9 as the very best of Bruckner. Haitink skilfully negotiates (goodness knows how) the problem that the finale can be less magnificent than the first movement and here makes for a splendid conclusion in rich, detailed and echt-Bruckner sound. A great recording of a great symphony.

I’ve ordered the Haitink. The advocacy of others here was irresistible. I had made yet another New Years Resolution to decrease CD purchases by giving each prospective purchase a few auditions on Spotify first but out came the credit card.
I love the sound of the Bavarians and the thought of Haitink leading them in my favorite Bruckner Symphony is to irresistible. I held to my Resolution for almost 7 Days, a new record.
I too was misled by what I had read about the worth of the Sixth. It wasn’t until I bought my first full cycle (Jochum/Dresden) that I owned a version and it was the Wand recording that hooked me in. Unlike 7 and 8, the last movement is an anticlimactic after thought

[Dave2002]

I held to my Resolution for almost 7 Days, a new record.

Is that for NY Resolutions, or the gap betwen regular purchases? We're now 7 days into 2018, and I haven't ordered any new CDs since the 4th December. That was https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Dohnanyi piano quintets - played by the Schubert Ensemble which was recommended to me, but which did not appear on streaming or download sites. I did however have a modest haul in a charity shop a few weeks before Christmas - I always pretend that they can be sent back to a charity shop later on, but few actually go out.

I can probably find enough CDs of Bruckner's music in my "archives" to last a few weeks.