Segerstam/Bruckner 8 - Barbican, 28.2.15

[Bryn]

I thought I could handle Bruckner at any pace but this was desperately slow, almost making Maestro Celibidache's accounts seem like prize greyhounds in comparison.

There were several sublime moments, though, not least when the entire universe seems to stop before the start of the ascent to the great climax in the Adagio ... and not a cough to be heard at this usual point of entry for the serial splutterers.

Great to hear a Bruckner performance causing such passionate divisions within a modern audience, though ... some things never really change!

Celi's October 20th 1990 Suntory Hall performance of the same Nowak edition took almost exactly 100 minutes, so given the even longer hiatuses deployed by Siegerstam ...

[Lento]

As someone who tends to avoid listening to the longer Bruckner symphonies in their eternity (sorry, entirety), I think I chose the wrong performance: I switched on approx 10 mins in and was still sitting there 90 mins later! Thank God we didn't have the "additions" mentioned in an earlier post! The slow movement I found sublime in places, but was just too long (for me): how much of this was Bruckner's fault, how much the conductor's and how much mine I have no idea. Found myself longing for someone like Runnicles at the helm. Sorry folks!

[Bryn]

As someone who tends to avoid listening to the longer Bruckner symphonies in their eternity (sorry, entirety), I think I chose the wrong performance: I switched on approx 10 mins in and was still sitting there 90 mins later! Thank God we didn't have the "additions" mentioned in an earlier post! The slow movement I found sublime in places, but was just too long (for me): how much of this was Bruckner's fault, how much the conductor's and how much mine I have no idea. Found myself longing for someone like Runnicles at the helm. Sorry folks!

Well, that fine Brucknerian Eugene Jochum brought the same Nowak edition in in 74' 16" with his 1964 Berlin Phil. recording for DGG. Mind you, with a screen name like Lento, what are you doing, worrying about slow tempi?

[Richard Tarleton]

Great thread.

OT, I mentioned Swansea's Brangwyn Hall, among Britain's finest concert halls, in the Simon Rattle thread. BBC NOW/Søndergård are doing Bruckner 8 there on 12 June. I heard the same orchestra do it there under Walter Weller some years ago, a marvellous acoustic for Bruckner.

[Lento]

Well, that fine Brucknerian Eugene Jochum brought the same Nowak edition in in 74' 16" with his 1964 Berlin Phil. recording for DGG. Mind you, with a screen name like Lento, what are you doing, worrying about slow tempi?

Lento non troppo, perhaps! I make that 29 mins shorter: goodness! If there really were no extra passages, that's some difference, even over a long piece.

[Nick Armstrong]

Mind you, with a screen name like Lento, what are you doing, worrying about slow tempi?

You took the words right out of my fingers (to steal a phrase! )

[Bryn]

Now listening to the final movement. The nature sounds on flute and clarinet are just so unnatural in this performance. It's like someone dowsed the wild bird seed in Nitrazepam.

[Petrushka]

In the normal way of things, had I known in advance that this performance was to take so long (despite PT mentioning it) I would have been reluctant to listen as I don't usually take to extra slow Bruckner. As it was, I was hooked from first note to last, in a state of extreme concentration and patience. Never has that Brucknerian cliché of 'cathedrals in sound' felt more apposite. During the quiet, contemplative passages I was put in mind of those tranquil areas in a great cathedral where the majesty and awe of the great building melt into an intimate understanding of God's message. The climaxes were duly delivered with the rich power they deserve and the engineering was first rate, making some of those LSO Live recordings unrecognisable as being made in the same venue.

Glad that this took place on a Saturday night where there no time constraints!

[duncan]

I was in the hall. I've enjoyed Bychkov's Wagner so had been looking forward to this. I've heard Segerstram conduct before and wasn't particularly inspired but a live Bruckner 8 is always a cause for celebration (or so I thought) so went anyway.

Great playing by the BBCSO. I was really frustrated by the interpretation. I didn't boo, but I understood the booers movitation. They made it clear their ire was with Segerstram not the orchestra.

I timed the performance at 104 minutes. Pauses between movements were pretty brief. The first and second movements maintained some momentum but the adagio and finale lost it completely. I was acutely aware of the passing of time and the final chords came as a relief. Deeply disappointing.

[Flosshilde]

Sounds as if it was the musical equivelant of the TV Wolf Hall - some saw the slowness as full of meaning, others found it just a bit tedious.

[P. G. Tipps]

I'm not a great fan of booing a performance (or in this case an interpretation) that one doesn't appreciate. As has been said already one can exit the hall without applauding and leave it at that. The fact is that many did seem to appreciate the reading though I wasn't one of them.

It all sounded a bit too heavily Wagnerian to my ears and there was a lack of 'humanity' in the music, I thought.

I prefer my Bruckner played with more tenderness and compassion, and, where appropriate, some humour as well.

The majestic grandeur is more than capable of taking care of itself with this particular composer, that's for sure ...

[kernelbogey]

It is absolutely disgraceful and incompetent of the BBC that the overrun and premature ending of the broadcast on iPlayer still remains unfixed more than twenty-four hours after the broadcast.

(The BBC Complaints process is so cumbersome, I've just written to TTN instead.)

[Bryn]

It is absolutely disgraceful and incompetent of the BBC that the overrun and premature ending of the broadcast on iPlayer still remains unfixed more than twenty-four hours after the broadcast.

It just serves to encourage listeners to record the series of programmes from the iPlayer and edit them back into shape. It's all there, with overlaps. The Bruckner is easy, especially if you now the work, but the final shakings of Hear and Now are much more of a challenge to get the edit in the right place. Thankfully, things were effectively back on schedule for TtN.

[kernelbogey]

[...]Thankfully, things were effectively back on schedule for TtN.

Eh?

[ChrisBennell]

It is absolutely disgraceful and incompetent of the BBC that the overrun and premature ending of the broadcast on iPlayer still remains unfixed more than twenty-four hours after the broadcast.

(The BBC Complaints process is so cumbersome, I've just written to TTN instead.)

Given that the missing end of the Bruckner is tagged onto the following R3 programme, I get the impression that the BBC chop their broadcast stream into programme segments based on the scheduled times for the programmes to begin and end, and without regard to the output content being complete for any programme. Maybe they use software to do it. I can't believe anyone there listens to what comes out! I had a similar problem with another R3 broadcast some months ago (a Prom concert I think) and got no reply at all to my complaint to the BBC. And the problem did not get fixed either. All highly unacceptable.