Originally posted by jayne lee wilson
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With Bruckner, there's always a long version and a short version...
Symphonies 1-4, short version...
1) 1866 Original "Linz" version is THE ONE, preferably in Carraghan's edition based on Haas's 1935 report, with some surprising differences (over the usually-played 1877 "Linz") even including the orchestration of the final cadence! The Tintner Naxos CD has this edition. The more usually heard-and-recorded 1877 "Linz" is fine though. Sadly, the only real effect of the 1890 "Vienna" version was to help prevent Bruckner from finishing his own 9th Symphony. It's odd to listen to it, clothed in Bruckner's later orchestral style, the freshness of the Linz version rather glossed and smoothed over, with some finale rhythms simplified. Worth a listen for obsessive Brucknerians (as an obsessive-compulsive rather than musically-compulsive creation...).
2) Since the appearance on record of the ed. Carraghan 1872 original text with scherzo second, those earlier Haas or Novak versions have been superseded. It is musically the finest (lighter orchestration enhances its pastoral feel) and the best to listen to (recorded by Tinter, Young, Blomstedt et al). Earlier versions with scherzo placed third broadly break down into Haas 1872, which restores musically damaging cuts to (i), (ii) and (iv); Nowak 1877, which preserves those cuts (wrongly in my view). And those of conductors e.g. Karajan who conflate Haas and Nowak. (You may or may not consider this a good thing).
Love your Giulini/VSO, love your Karajan? As I said recently elsewhere, "the past is another country; they do things differently there".
3) You simply have to become familiar with the 1873 original version (ed. Nowak), in order to appreciate the savagery wrought upon the symphony by later misguided "abridgements". 1889 is the worst, but even 1877 still preserves the disjointed finale, and the development-juggernaut grinding to a halt in (i)!
The 1873 3rd ( Blomstedt, Inbal, Tintner, Norrington et al) is a vast and noble conception which still feels, to some extent, provisional (or maybe we still haven't caught up with Bruckner here...) ; it needed refinement, not the reductive editorial assaults upon it provoked by Bruckner's misunderstanding friends. If you find it hard going, just relax and play "spot the Wagner quotation". Fun with Bruckner!
4) MUCH easier. The 1878-80 revision is "the one we all know", and differences between editions are effectively insignificant in performance. The 1874 original, with a completely different (and very inferior) scherzo, is probably the least musically satisfactory version of any Bruckner symphony; no, it's not sketchy, if anything there's too much going on! But it sounds a bit raw, unflowing and unrefined. Dedicated Brucknerians should hear it, of course... if you come to it familiar with 1878-80 there'll be plenty of surprises!
(There was a further, quite extensive, revision dating from 1888. Until Haas's edition appeared in the 1930s this was the accepted version, with many modifications to both orchestration and the music itself; Haas and Novak both felt (with well-documented reason) that the Schalk brothers had been all-too "instrumental" in this revision, but it can be heard on the Vanska/Minneapolis/BIS CD, in an edition by Korstvedt).
(In fact, there are SEVEN recognised versions of No.4, including one with a heavily cut finale by Gustav Mahler! The above, eagle's-eye sweep of 1-4 is neither scholarly nor complete, but gives you an idea of the main landmarks...
From No. 5 on, things do get a bit more straightforward, apart from No.8....)
Symphonies 1-4, short version...
1) 1866 Original "Linz" version is THE ONE, preferably in Carraghan's edition based on Haas's 1935 report, with some surprising differences (over the usually-played 1877 "Linz") even including the orchestration of the final cadence! The Tintner Naxos CD has this edition. The more usually heard-and-recorded 1877 "Linz" is fine though. Sadly, the only real effect of the 1890 "Vienna" version was to help prevent Bruckner from finishing his own 9th Symphony. It's odd to listen to it, clothed in Bruckner's later orchestral style, the freshness of the Linz version rather glossed and smoothed over, with some finale rhythms simplified. Worth a listen for obsessive Brucknerians (as an obsessive-compulsive rather than musically-compulsive creation...).
2) Since the appearance on record of the ed. Carraghan 1872 original text with scherzo second, those earlier Haas or Novak versions have been superseded. It is musically the finest (lighter orchestration enhances its pastoral feel) and the best to listen to (recorded by Tinter, Young, Blomstedt et al). Earlier versions with scherzo placed third broadly break down into Haas 1872, which restores musically damaging cuts to (i), (ii) and (iv); Nowak 1877, which preserves those cuts (wrongly in my view). And those of conductors e.g. Karajan who conflate Haas and Nowak. (You may or may not consider this a good thing).
Love your Giulini/VSO, love your Karajan? As I said recently elsewhere, "the past is another country; they do things differently there".
3) You simply have to become familiar with the 1873 original version (ed. Nowak), in order to appreciate the savagery wrought upon the symphony by later misguided "abridgements". 1889 is the worst, but even 1877 still preserves the disjointed finale, and the development-juggernaut grinding to a halt in (i)!
The 1873 3rd ( Blomstedt, Inbal, Tintner, Norrington et al) is a vast and noble conception which still feels, to some extent, provisional (or maybe we still haven't caught up with Bruckner here...) ; it needed refinement, not the reductive editorial assaults upon it provoked by Bruckner's misunderstanding friends. If you find it hard going, just relax and play "spot the Wagner quotation". Fun with Bruckner!
4) MUCH easier. The 1878-80 revision is "the one we all know", and differences between editions are effectively insignificant in performance. The 1874 original, with a completely different (and very inferior) scherzo, is probably the least musically satisfactory version of any Bruckner symphony; no, it's not sketchy, if anything there's too much going on! But it sounds a bit raw, unflowing and unrefined. Dedicated Brucknerians should hear it, of course... if you come to it familiar with 1878-80 there'll be plenty of surprises!
(There was a further, quite extensive, revision dating from 1888. Until Haas's edition appeared in the 1930s this was the accepted version, with many modifications to both orchestration and the music itself; Haas and Novak both felt (with well-documented reason) that the Schalk brothers had been all-too "instrumental" in this revision, but it can be heard on the Vanska/Minneapolis/BIS CD, in an edition by Korstvedt).
(In fact, there are SEVEN recognised versions of No.4, including one with a heavily cut finale by Gustav Mahler! The above, eagle's-eye sweep of 1-4 is neither scholarly nor complete, but gives you an idea of the main landmarks...
From No. 5 on, things do get a bit more straightforward, apart from No.8....)
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