Prom 56: Bruckner, BBC Singers / Berlin Philharmonic, O. Park / K. Petrenko

[Darkbloom]

Prompted me out of curiosity to check old programmes and the last (and only) time I have heard Bruckner 5 live was at the Gewandhaus in 1974. It may well have been the first time I heard it at all. It was coupled with Hindemith Sinfonie Mathis der Maler, which lasts about 30 min. Masur was having an evening off and the conductor was Vienna-based Hans Swarowsky. Not so well known - Musicweb has him as a "Forgotten Artist". Born Budapest 1899, so for this concert he would have been 75, coincidentally my present age ... he died a year later. The programme points to an impressive CV: He studied composition with Schönberg, Webern and Eisler and conducting with Weingärtner and R. Strauss. Mehta and Abbado attended his master classes.

My first was Abbado and the BPO at the Proms. For a Bruckner novice, which I was at the time, it was a tough stand, but was worth it for the last few minutes. It must be one of those indelible concert experiences if you're seeing it for the first time and the performance is adequate.

[Petrushka]

Talking of the blessed Bernie, I remember when he did the Fifth with the VPO at the Festival Hall (on its own that time) and the concert nearly didn't happen because the lorry transporting their gear got in an accident on the Ringstrasse that morning. You'd have thought they would have got there the night before (I'm sure that would have Germans tutting about Austrian schlamperei) and we could see the musicians on a monitor, hurriedly coming on stage for a brief rehearsal. Of course they play this stuff in their sleep, and they virtually had to that night.

I was there for that one and remember it well. I was also at a 1980 Prom when Haitink programmed the Mozart 40 before the Bruckner 5 with the Concertgebouw - and we got Kondrashin in Rachmaninov 2 the following night! Happy days.

[Prommer]

This is a biggie - Bruckner 5. Was Gunter Wand's calling card, over a number of Proms seasons.

The BPO played just the symphony in Berlin a week or so ago... no other fillers!

[edashtav]

Part 1
BBC Singers conducted by Owain Park
Three Bruckner Motets:
Os Justi
Locus Iste
Christus Factus Est

I suspect I can sing the bass lines from memory. Great dynamic range and relaxed pacing so suitable for the Hall's ample acoustic. I enjoyed moments when the middle voices cut through the shell of the outer parts. The plaintive tenor entry in Locus Este was so tender, as was the choir's final entry.
Their final motet was such a BIG little sing.


100 years of the Singers; 200 years since Anton was born. CONGRATULATIONS TO ONE AND ALL.

[Prommer]

Sarah Willis says in the last six bars, you hear the flutes, where else do you hear the flutes... um, Abbado! In London a few years ago... Same 'trick' but it is still a marvellous touch.

[Prommer]

Ah, the breath/heartbeat - like Tod und Verklärung!

[Prommer]

Sarah W. also said Petrenko hasn't conducted any Bruckner before...? Whaaaaat?

[Prommer]

I did hear the BPO performance from Berlin the other day, of this programme, and the horns were a bit feeble in the finale.

Let's hope that was the sound engineering, and that they do not run out of puff. We need to hear them, not just the flutes!

[Prommer]

Thank goodness, no applause (yet) between movements. This is Bruckner!

[Prommer]

Again, wonderfully delineated textures!

[oddoneout]

Looks like a BBC Singers benefit concert to me . They probably know all three pieces from memory. Can’t be more than 13- 15 mins of music. The fifth isn’t a particularly long work either by Bruckner standards. Tell me there’s no interval. I bet there is - got to keep those overpriced bar tills rattling. It’s a bit of a rip off and no doubt top prices.

Why no decent sized concerto in the first half ? When I think of the hours opera orchestras put in….

Could be worse - you could be paying £350 to stand in your local park to listen to a "concert"

https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/sep/01/oasis-ticketmaster-in-demand-standing-tickets

And they say opera is too expensive...

[edashtav]

LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony By Our London Music Critic
MAHLER once characterised Bruckner as “half God, half simpleton,” a description which fits well the composer of the Symphony No. 5 in B Flat played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the Royal Festival Hall on Friday night. The God expressed himself in Olympian grandeur which the simpleton always chops into four-bar phrase lengths. High passion and deep emotion are often spoken through the stumbling speech and timbre of a peasant. Is it really worth while sitting through an hour and a quarter's verbosity for twenty minutes or less of superb music? Your critic's answer is a conditional affirmative; the conditions being not to hear the work too often and always to hear it as well played as it was last Friday. Dutch musicians seem to have a special affinity with the later Austrian symphonists, and Eduard van Beinum gave the B Flat a superb performance. The brass playing was rich and unanimous and in the finale an extra brass band doubled up to make the chorale even more sonorous. The only trouble was that the strings faded out of the picture. Now if the strings were doubled as well, who would have paid the bill? For in London with Bruckner it would not be easy to double the audience.
The musical correspondent of The Scotsman February 1963
( probably penned by Erik Chisholm)

A favourite Bruckner best remembered from Lucerne Festival Orchestra performance under Claudio Abbado. The work was preceded by a delightful and sympathetic Mozart Haffner Symphony. Great memories and I suspect shared by another Boarder: Alison.
First thoughts tonight: well sustained and supported tempo in the first movement. Did the position of the microphones allow the flute and fitdtvtrumpet to occasionally obtrude? I loved how each set of material was etched clearly.How Bruckner overlays contrasts and develops his material is so much clearer and impressive when the structural girders are clear in one's head A remarkable clear headed and intellectually profound interpretation. This first movement has mystical concentration and growing admiration. Kirill at his most philosophical: all is changed by the heat if his diviner's fire.
I prefaced my review with a thoughtful review from the time when Bruckner's 5th was scarcely known in Britain. Its identity it is broken down into 4 bar phrases is utterly wrong because the reviewer fails to understand that its different strands overlap they rarely start or stop together.

The oboe announced the slow movement with aplomb and authority. The strings answered with a question. As the strands developed the shaping of phrases was wonderful. The 5th's position in the Pantheon of Bruckner symphony has been debated for aeons. At last, I feel it is joining 7, 8, and 9 not out of respect but genuine love. The Scktsnan felt it should not be listened to over frequently
I'm hearing several times a year and my Intetest, far from waning, increases with each repetition. My word, Kirill has vanished Bridge passages from Bruckner! Every bar has a structural function. The slow movement in Petrenko's had evolves almost into a solemn processional, it would make a fine funeral podtlude if arranged for organ! Trumpet and oboe intone the Last Post!

Was I ready for some fun. Yes, abd it was delivered in spades or wheelbarrows by Anton and his heavy footed peasants. Delicious slurs enlivened the spirit of drunken ( I almost wrote 'dirty') dancing. The trio was straight out of Beethoven by Mahler. Portamenti suggested the pedants had drunk the barrel dry. C'mon on lads straighten up, we're back to the Scherzo,we must pretend to be Ladies and Gentlemen.. Such fun! No wonder Mahler loved transcribing Bruckner- he had so much to learn about how to let his wiry hair down.
The Finale - a massive statement full of intricate counterpoint and a blazing chorale with acutely Brucknerian harmony.
A fugue starts from a tipsy clarinet who steadied by a pedantic oboe and angry lower strings. Every ounce of Mahlerian satire is being drawn from Bruckner's black and white score by Petrenko's
penetrating insights. NO HALF MEADURES, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.
A.majestic performance that has banished Ckaudio Abbado from fond memory. Anton Bruckner is 200 years young!

One final point the Scitsman suggested an extra brass group at the end helped van Beinum. God give Petrenko extra string and brass aplenty
He deserves them AND needed them at the END where he resorted to naughty EXAGGERATED TEMPI!

[Prommer]

Well, that was good.

[Prommer]

The presenter says "best performance of a Bruckner symphony I have ever heard..."

[Prommer]

Horns ok in the finale but still could have done with a tiny bit more puff...