Bruckner arr Payne symphony no 2

[Guest]

Royal Academy of Music, London

Friday 15 March 2013 13:05

Trevor Pinnock conductor
Academy Chamber Ensemble

Bruckner arr. Anthony Payne Symphony no.2 in C minor (world premiere of new arrangement)

Robert Simpson’s celebrated essays ‘The Essence of Bruckner’ of 1968 compellingly advocated the wonders of Bruckner’s early symphonic work, and especially the Second Symphony. In this newly commissioned version for nineteen players by Anthony Payne — of Elgar 3 fame — the Academy is retrospectively re-igniting Schoenberg’s vision for the pioneering chamber Society for Private Musical Performance.

Admission free.

[Roehre]

Unable to go. But I very definitely would if I could.

[amateur51]

Unable to go. But I very definitely would if I could.

I hope to go and I'll report back, Roehre.

RAM's concert description continues ".. This work joins the brilliant distillation of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony which Trevor Pinnock and Academy students recorded in 2012, and which will appear on the Linn label in May." so perhaps the Bruckner may be recorded too.

[arthroceph]

that's quite something ... you impressions very welcome!

[amateur51]

The Hall was only about two-thirds which was rather disappointing but Anthony Payne, RAM Principal Jonathan Freeman-Attwood and Dame Jane Glover were all in attendance.

The sight of the stage was a bit of a shock for anyone expecting a Bruckner orchestra - 19 players in all including a harmonium and a grand piano, one cello, one double-bass. I deliberately brought the programme home so that I could report on the exact instrumentation but do you think that I can find it? If I find it, I shall fill in the details.

The first impression was that certain familiar Brucknerian sonorities were very different, not better or less good, just different. String tremolandos were inevitably more 'obvious' rather than the more usual blur that can happen in a full orchestra. And in the first movement so much was taken by the solo cello and double-bass as to seem almost comical but once I'd got over that it became a largely absorbing experience and that really was the word of the performance - absorbing. I could 'see' how Bruckner achieved certain effects, I could 'see' the crucial role of the timps (kept well in proportion), and I could 'see' the startling interventions by brass.

Inevitably this performance was quite light on its feet and I noticed that string vibrato was used carefully. Trevor Pinnock gave a brief introductory scene-setting talk and at the end there was a good round of applause for what we had witnessed, something quite remarkable. Pinnock told us that this arrangement has been recorded by this group and will be released in due course. The concert concluded with a delicious performance of Alban Berg's arrangement of Johann Strauss II's Wein, Weib und Gesang, with marvellously clean textures and a definite Viennese lilt. Anthony Payne was enthusiastically cheered to the stage to take a bow and was clearly delighted by the performance.

I'll certainly get the CD when it comes out but I'd stress that, useful though that will be, the effect of the arrangement for a non-score reader like me is as much in the visual aspect as in the sound, so if you see that it is to be played near to you, do go - a fascinating experience and a tremendous arrangement. Bravo Anthony Payne, RAM orchestra and Trevor Pinnock

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Cheers, ami!

[Roehre]

Many thanks for that am51, much appreciated

[arthroceph]

I second the thank-you's Am51: very nice report!

[Sir Velo]

Thirded. You should be writing reviews for the dailies Ams! Talking of whom, not a sign of this concert in any of them.

[Lento]

Bruckner/Payne Symphony No 2

Has anyone had the chance and/or inclination to form a view on Hyperion's new recording, which is an arrangement of Bruckner 2 for chamber ensemble, details here:

http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc...D_CKD442&vw=dc?

The Scherzo is available as a free sampler and sounds quite resonant and very clear, as one might expect.

[jayne lee wilson]

Rob Cowan's review is in Gramophone for 4/2014.... broadly positive, but he's "not sure" if the gains are as great for listeners as for performers... welcomed as an "enjoyable supplement" to a Bruckner collection.

It's a shame they used a hybridised edition, based on Haas 1877 but with Pinnock's own choices of restored or excised passages. I think his comment in a good Gramophone article about the recording is a bit arrogant, "any idea that there is a "right" version is a completely wrong way of thinking"...! He calls the 2nd a "perpetual work in progress"... but most true Brucknerians now recognise 1872 Carraghan as the most complete expression of this score. It sounds right and feels right. Maybe Pinnock just hasn't played or heard enough Bruckner.

I've nothing against arrangements as such - why not? And I'm very open to interpretative liberty (Venzago!) but having found the online excerpts more of a curiosity than a compulsion (though neatly phrased, well played and recorded), I probably won't invest...

For this symphony, it's the lyrical and expansive Simone Young (Oehms) or Tintner (Naxos), or the superbly tight and dramatic Blomstedt (Querstand). All use the 1872 Carraghan edition. Currently I just favour the Blomstedt, with the Leipzig Gewandhaus at their marvellous best.

Venzago's CPO recording of 1877 with the Northern Sinfonia is one of his most gripping radicalisations; if you want to shake it up with Bruckner I would go for this, rather than the Linn confection.

[Barbirollians]

Rob Cowan's review is in Gramophone for 4/2014.... broadly positive, but he's "not sure" if the gains are as great for listeners as for performers... welcomed as an "enjoyable supplement" to a Bruckner collection.

It's a shame they used a hybridised edition, based on Haas 1877 but with Pinnock's own choices of restored or excised passages. I think his comment in a good Gramophone article about the recording is a bit arrogant, "any idea that there is a "right" version is a completely wrong way of thinking"...! He calls the 2nd a "perpetual work in progress"... but most true Brucknerians now recognise 1872 Carraghan as the most complete expression of this score. It sounds right and feels right. Maybe Pinnock just hasn't played or heard enough Bruckner.

I've nothing against arrangements as such - why not? And I'm very open to interpretative liberty (Venzago!) but having found the online excerpts more of a curiosity than a compulsion (though neatly phrased, well played and recorded), I probably won't invest...

For this symphony, it's the lyrical and expansive Simone Young (Oehms) or Tintner (Naxos), or the superbly tight and dramatic Blomstedt (Querstand). All use the 1872 Carraghan edition. Currently I just favour the Blomstedt, with the Leipzig Gewandhaus at their marvellous best.

Venzago's CPO recording of 1877 with the Northern Sinfonia is one of his most gripping radicalisations; if you want to shake it up with Bruckner I would go for this, rather than the Linn confection.

Giulini VSO on Testament for me - opened my ears to a work I had never been able to get into at all before .

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, the Giulini is a classic of its kind. These I have loved...

On the basis of that attachment, BB, I strongly recommend the Blomstedt to you. At 62'02 for Carraghan 1872, it's only a few minutes longer than Giulini's 1877 Nowak reading (58'32). You'll have to get used to the scherzo coming second though!

[Richard Barrett]

What was supposed to be the point of this arrangement?

[jayne lee wilson]

What was supposed to be the point of this arrangement?

According to the article (G. 4/2014) it's part of a series attempting to recreate Schoenberg's "Society for Private Music Performance" (no, I wouldn't have phrased it like that either...). The Bruckner 2 disc has Berg's arrangement of J. Strauss II's Wein, Weib und Gesang as filler. A previous release from the same group had Mahler 4 in Erwin Stein's arrangement.

The Gramophone article lists chamberscale arrangements of Mahler's Lied von der Erde (arr. Schoenberg, Lahti CE/Vanska), DSCH 15 (arr. Derevianko, COE/Kremer) and Beethoven 6 (arr. MG Fischer) played by.... the Cologne String Sextet.
They do tend to review well. I guess you'd expect the performers and producers to be very dedicated to such individualistic projects.