Bruckner - Symphony No. 8

[Petrushka]

As the Bruckner 8 is one of my defining works I have a vast number of recordings including various off air. Listing them all would take half a day and bedtime beckons...

Some thoughts: Furtwangler's 1944 VPO radio recording is basically Haas but WF makes one or two amendments of his own which aren't in any edition.
I've just purchased Böhm's live 1969 BPO on Testament (Nowak) but his 1978 Zurich account is Haas.
Haitink has always been a Haas man but has recently changed to Nowak.

I'll revisit the thread later and list all the recordings I have. They all have something to say and I wouldn't be without any of them.

[Conchis]

Suvi Raj Grubb was, apparently, gob-smacked when Klemperer insisted on a massive cut to the finale of the 8th at the 1970 recording session: Klemperer had 'in an instant, rendered the recording uncompetitive.'

Personally, I don't noticed what's missing:just very glad that O.K. finally recorded it.

[P. G. Tipps]

Oh, this is definitely my type of thread ...

Blomstedt has already been briefly mentioned ... he's a really top-class Brucknerian but, for some reason, is often completely ignored in such discussions. I have a video recording of him conducting the 8th with the BPO just over a year ago and it is right up there with the very best. Can't remember whether it is the Haas or Nowak (I suspect the former).

There are so many fine recordings of this symphony with the more celebrated Bruckner conductors ... Karajan, Wand, Skrow. Jochum are the more obvious candidates ... but there so many others too numerous to mention.

I've never been particularly fond of Klemperer's Bruckner and Barenboim's accounts have always seemed to me to lack a certain "gravitas".

Hopefully he'll put that right in the 4th and 6th at least, come September ...

[Tony Halstead]

Klemperer's Bruckner #5 is bloomin' good, too.


JB doesn't half get a move on, doesn't he - going back to reports of Bruckner performances before WW2 (as heard in Böhm's superb Mono Seventh: real fire)! Another Haas performance - the conductor's final London concert. Great to hear the Hallé brass of that vintage at work, too - very different from any other brass playing I've heard.

Hmmm.... what a pity that the Wagner Tubas spoil it with their French/ Bohemian/ Russian VIBRATO!
Definitely not an Austrian 'performing tradition'.

[P. G. Tipps]

Oh, that reminds me ... forgot all about the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra and Gennady Rozhdestvensky.

Sublimely savage!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Hmmm.... what a pity that the Wagner Tubas spoil it with their French/ Bohemian/ Russian VIBRATO!
Definitely not an Austrian 'performing tradition'.

Eeeeeeeee - you great, soft southern softie! That's the sound of Musicians who've been taught by men who spent 7/8s of their lives five miles underground in a very different type of pit, hewing coal from the bowels of the earth with their teeth. These men recognized and respected hard work when they saw it, and knew that a cut in the score was just another manifestation of the same oppressive bourgeoise mentality that demanded cuts in their pay. THESE men wouldn't've sneered at Bruckner's doughnuts - and, let's face it: which of us would like to have their doughnuts sneered at? I know I wouldn't.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.......... ..............

[Tony Halstead]

Eeeeeeeee - you great, soft southern softie! That's the sound of Musicians who've been taught by men who spent 7/8s of their lives five miles underground in a very different type of pit, hewing coal from the bowels of the earth with their teeth. These men recognized and respected hard work when they saw it, and knew that a cut in the score was just another manifestation of the same oppressive bourgeoise mentality that demanded cuts in their pay. THESE men wouldn't've sneered at Bruckner's doughnuts - and, let's face it: which of us would like to have their doughnuts sneered at? I know I wouldn't.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.......... ..............

This

great, soft southern softie

is actually a Mancunian born and bred, who while a student at the old RMCM used to play as an 'extra' with the Hallé during the Barbirolli era, and furthermore can be heard
(just about) playing the various little 7th horn solos in the Barbirolli Bruckner 9 / 1966 Proms ( BBC Legends).
We Northern lads on t' Wagner Tubas 'ad no truck wi' vibrato in those days of yore...eeeeee.... bah gum

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Ay? Well.

'Appen.

[Nick Armstrong]

Eeeeeeeee - you great, soft southern softie! That's the sound of Musicians who've been taught by men who spent 7/8s of their lives five miles underground in a very different type of pit, hewing coal from the bowels of the earth with their teeth. These men recognized and respected hard work when they saw it, and knew that a cut in the score was just another manifestation of the same oppressive bourgeoise mentality that demanded cuts in their pay. THESE men wouldn't've sneered at Bruckner's doughnuts - and, let's face it: which of us would like to have their doughnuts sneered at? I know I wouldn't.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.......... ..............

This is actually a Mancunian born and bred, who while a student at the old RMCM used to play as an 'extra' with the Hallé during the Barbirolli era, and furthermore can be heard
(just about) playing the various little 7th horn solos in the Barbirolli Bruckner / 1966 Proms ( BBC Legends).
We Northern lads on t' Wagner Tubas 'ad no truck wi' vibrato in those days of yore...eeeeee.... bah gum

Tubas and doughnuts - FOR3 Forum version of the Wars of the Roses...

[Barbirollians]

Hmmm.... what a pity that the Wagner Tubas spoil it with their French/ Bohemian/ Russian VIBRATO!
Definitely not an Austrian 'performing tradition'.

Which one is spoiled the Klemperer or the Barbirolli ? I love that BBC Legends Seventh too !

[Tony Halstead]

Which one is spoiled the Klemperer or the Barbirolli ? I love that BBC Legends Seventh too !

ferney was referring to JB's (Barbirolli's) Bruckner 8.
Klemperer's Bruckner 5 (sorry, haven't heard it) almost certainly doesn't include Wagner tubas since, last time I looked, they aren't in the score. But maybe one day somebody will discover a Schalk or Haas abomination with some 'implied' or conjectural Wagner tuba parts in the 5th?

[mathias broucek]

I've got too many 8ths to list but the ones that stand out are:

Celi / MPO (Haas) - live in Japan (Altus or Sony). Slow but the slow movemetn is very beautiful indeed and you can hear more of the different lines in the code of the finale. Excellent recording
Sinopoli / SKD (Haas) - DG. Free from eccentricity. Outstandingly balanced and terrific sound from the orchestra
Furtwangler (Haas-ish) - 1944. At a dinner party we once did "random play" and the Adagio of the 8th came on. Not the most obvious choice but we were all stunned into silence. When I told people the actual date of recording (1944) the silence intensified.....(The sleeve incorrectly said it was one of the 1949 performances.)
Karajan / BPO (Haas) - EMI 1957. My first and therefore reference point.
Barbirolli / Halle - BBC Legends. As discussed above

Like others, I enjoy Tennstedt's studio Bruckner but I find the live performances of 7 and 8 on the LPO a little course. (Interesting because I normally prefer his live recordings, especially in Mahler)

May have to try Asahina. I heard his 7th once but it was a lossy download and the slow movement was anything but...

[Tony Halstead]

I've got too many 8ths to list but the ones that stand out are:

Celi / MPO (Haas) - live in Japan (Altus or Sony). Slow but the slow movemetn is very beautiful indeed and you can hear more of the different lines in the code of the finale. Excellent recording
Sinopoli / SKD (Haas) - DG. Free from eccentricity. Outstandingly balanced and terrific sound from the orchestra
Furtwangler (Haas-ish) - 1944. At a dinner party we once did "random play" and the Adagio of the 8th came on. Not the most obvious choice but we were all stunned into silence. When I told people the actual date of recording (1944) the silence intensified.....(The sleeve incorrectly said it was one of the 1949 performances.)
Karajan / BPO (Haas) - EMI 1957. My first and therefore reference point.
Barbirolli / Halle - BBC Legends. As discussed above

Like others, I enjoy Tennstedt's studio Bruckner but I find the live performances of 7 and 8 on the LPO a little course. (Interesting because I normally prefer his live recordings, especially in Mahler)

May have to try Asahina. I heard his 7th once but it was a lossy download and the slow movement was anything but...

Have you heard the Jascha Horenstein /LSO Bruckner 8 recorded at the Proms in 1970, briefly available a few years ago on a BBC Legends CD?

[Petrushka]

The Bruckner 8 is, for me, the greatest purely orchestral symphony ever written and the vast number of recordings I have testifies to the fact:

Halle/Barbirolli (live 1970)
Leipzig Gewandhaus/Blomstedt
VPO/Böhm
BPO/Böhm (live 1969)
Zurich Tonhalle/Böhm (live 1978)
VPO/Boulez
Concertgebouw/Chailly
VPO/Furtwangler (radio recording 1944)
BPO/Furtwangler (live 1949)
VPO/Furtwangler (live 1954)
VPO/Giulini
Philharmonia/Giulini (live 1983)
BBC SO/Goodall (live 1969)
Concertgebouw/Haitink (1969)
Concertgebouw/Haitink (1981)
Concertgebouw/Haitink (live 2005)
Staatskapelle Dresden/Haitink (live 2002)
Concertgebouw/Haitink (live 2013 - from Dutch R4)
LSO/Horenstein (live 1970)
BPO/Jochum
Dresden Staatskapelle/Jochum
Concertgebouw/Jochum (live 1984)
Concertgebouw/Jochum (live 1973 - from Dutch R4)
BPO/Karajan (1957)
BPO/Karajan (live 1966 Amsterdam - from Dutch Radio 4)
BPO/Karajan (1975)
BPO/Karajan (live 1978 Salzburg (private recording)
VPO/Karajan (live 1979 - DVD)
BPO/Karajan (live London 1979 - private recording)
VPO/Karajan (1988)
Cologne RSO/Keilberth (live 1966)
Cologne RSO/Klemperer
Philharmonia/Klemperer
Bavarian RSO/Kubelik (live 1977)
VPO/Maazel (live London 2013 - from BBC R3)
LSO/Rattle (live 2016 - from BBC R3)
VPO/Solti
Chicago SO/Solti
LPO/Tennstedt
LPO/Tennstedt (live 1984)
BPO/Tennstedt (live 1981)
Cologne RSO/Wand
NDR SO/Wand (live 1987)
BPO/Wand
Deutsches SO Berlin/Wand (live 1994)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Have you heard the Jascha Horenstein /LSO Bruckner 8 recorded at the Proms in 1970, briefly available a few years ago on a BBC Legends CD?

- and once on an Italian label stretched over two CDs, with the rehearsals for Simpson's Third Symphony as "filler". Both releases (and Horenstein's VOX CD of the Eighth, with the VSO) are still available at silly prices.






And I'm very VERY sorry for calling you - even in jest - a "soft southern softie"