Tackling a serious gap in my musical knowledge

[Beef Oven]

Bit expensive, cali, when you can get the set for half as much again!

True Fluffy, but cali is looking at a starting point to get into the whole Bruckner thang. This is a great starting point. It's about putting yourself in others' shoes.

[VodkaDilc]

Don't do it VodkaDilc! Start with the Naxos/Tintner 1&2!
Don't run with the herd, go rogue with Anton. Number ONE is Number ONE. The First. The Place to Start.

Lots of helpful advice for me to read through. Perhaps I should go out a buy a copy of No1 and No4! There's something about going through the cycle from beginning to end which appeals, but No4 sounds special. Can I think back half a century and remember how I experienced the Beethoven cycle first? Certainly not beginning with 1! Yet, with Mahler, having first heard some big Prom performances of the giants of the cycle, (like No8 in about 1971), I set about them more or less chronologically.

Thanks to everyone.

What if I hate them! But, I suppose that if I like Brahms and I like Mahler, Bruckner should appeal too.

[teamsaint]

I am also a Bruckner novice.
The one think I would say is that i also had never got round to really listening to Bruckner, and the things I had heard(on the radio in the background) never really grabbed me.
However, recently I happened upon a version of #8 and was absolutely hooked.
So no doubt all the other advice is wonderful stuff. But if you are not finding a way into Bruckner, then #8 might just be the way.
but as I say, this is advice(or an observation really) from an ill informed novice as to what worked for me.

[Flay]

I only "found" Bruckner in my early 50s, and that was with the 8th. It is a good starting point.

I appreciate Jayne's suggestion. Do that by all means, but if you find yourself floundering, jump to the 8th or 4th.

[ahinton]

IS there - indeed can there be - just one way in which to approach Bruckner in terms of the order in which one encounters his work? If there is, Jayne has provided it, along with heaps of her customary great good sense and sensitivity. I didn't do it this way, I have to admit; the first two Bruckner works that I heard were the Fifth Symphony and then the E minor Mass.

The only thing that Jayne omits from her post - despite welcome mentions of which versions of certain symphonies to tackle first - is which version of 9 to choose? I'd go for Rattle's recent one, personally - from which most here will conclude that I'd leave to one side any of them that include only three-quarters of the correct number of movements...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Leaving Bruckner aside, I have a blind spot for German Lieder.

[teamsaint]

Leaving Bruckner aside, I have a blind spot for German Lieder.

don't know if there has been a "Blind spot advice " thread recently, but if not perhaps its time for one !

[Bryn]

I only "found" Bruckner in my early 50s, and that was with the 8th. It is a good starting point.

I appreciate Jayne's suggestion. Do that by all means, but if you find yourself floundering, jump to the 8th or 4th.

I'm generally with Jayne on this matter, though I would go for Norrington's two recordings of the 3rd. The 1st was my introduction to Bruckner in my youth and next just happened to come the 3rd, though not in the original 'Wagner' version. I dearly yearned to hear that for some years and was not in the least disappointed when I finally did get to hear it. For me the 4th remains the weak link.

When it comes to the 9th, do yourself a favour, start with one of the completed versions. I have not heard the CD version of the Rattle yet (though I have watched/listened to the Berliner Philharmoniker Digital Concert Hall's offering several times), but that might be a good way in.

Don't worry too much about the various editions of the scores to start with. Plenty of time for that once you have got the taste and feel of Bruckner.

[Lateralthinking1]

I can't be the only person who has reached a fairly advanced age and has realised that there are notable gaps in my musical knowledge/experience.

Well, I am only just beginning in some respects. I should really be finding my way around the bigger names but prefer to choose what I choose. Last year it was Kodaly because of the Proms. I sense that this year it could be Villa-Lobos and Ireland.

However, I did read a post on another thread from salymap, I think, which has led to Alan Bush. All the initial signs there seem good. I have a long-standing commitment to discover more of Rutland Boughton who I believe was a former Michael Eavis. Whitacre and Respighi are also saying something to me currently and hopefully will say more.

As for the more substantial, there is the Brahms to follow up on - again related to the last Proms and my main serious challenge to myself for greater understanding - plus Liszt for which I have more of a natural feel and possibly Mahler in the "prepare yourself to be surprised" box. I have found that I very much like Chris's choice by DFD.

[ahinton]

When it comes to the 9th, do yourself a favour, start with one of the completed versions. I have not heard the CD version of the Rattle yet (though I have watched/listened to the Berliner Philharmoniker Digital Concert Hall's offering several times), but that might be a good way in.

Good to hear this advice! It will be interesting at last to note a generation of listeners coming to Bruckner's final symphony for the first time in the four-movement form that the composer always intended it to be; indeed, I've listened to this magnificent symphony less than any of the others (except the pre-no. 1 ones) until recently because I simply couldn't stand the sheer frustration of knowing that there's a long journey on which to embark following the close of the Adagio but no one will sell me a ticket for it.

[cloughie]

True Fluffy, but cali is looking at a starting point to get into the whole Bruckner thang. This is a great starting point. It's about putting yourself in other's shoes.

Yes but what's not to like? Get started - bound to want the rest! Can still follow cali's starting orders then.....

[cloughie]

IS there - indeed can there be - just one way in which to approach Bruckner in terms of the order in which one encounters his work? If there is, Jayne has provided it, along with heaps of her customary great good sense and sensitivity. I didn't do it this way, I have to admit; the first two Bruckner works that I heard were the Fifth Symphony and then the E minor Mass.

The only thing that Jayne omits from her post - despite welcome mentions of which versions of certain symphonies to tackle first - is which version of 9 to choose? I'd go for Rattle's recent one, personally - from which most here will conclude that I'd leave to one side any of them that include only three-quarters of the correct number of movements...

Not sure this is a good idea as a starting point as the finale is partly fake-Bruckner, whilst maybe being good music maybe misleading to a novice.

[Beef Oven]

Don't do it VodkaDilc! Start with the Naxos/Tintner 1&2!
Don't run with the herd, go rogue with Anton. Number ONE is Number ONE. The First. The Place to Start.

"The way out is via the door; how is it that no-one will use this method?"
(ancient chinese proverb)

Are we sure number ONE is indeed nimber ONE?

[Richard Tarleton]

My advice would be to go to a live performance of - well whatever you can find that's on. My first was 3 by Haitink/LPO, and was knocked sideways.

My Bruckner epiphany came at university when I got back early from the library to my digs one afternoon. My landlord in whose house I lived for 2 years (himself a don of central European extraction) called me into the living room and without preamble said "I think we listen to some Bruckner" and played the Klemperer 7 on LP (obviously, this was 1968). I was hooked from then on, there was no going back. He'd heard the 7th conducted by Furtwangler in Vienna.

I'd go for 4,7,8 and 9, for what it's worth. I have to admit it was some years before I heard 0,1 and 2. Many years ago a great post from Roehre listed all the symphonies, versions and revisions in order, the equivalent if memory serves of 27 symphonies

[Mr Pee]

Personally, I would go with Beef's advice and start with no.4, then 7, 8 and 9. And the ninth is magnificent in its 3 movement form. I always have a problem with "completed" symphonies, or Requiems, because I know I'm not hearing the composer's final thoughts.