Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 1 - 9
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Composer: Anton BrucknerConductor: Eugen Jochum
Orchestra: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Orchestra: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Edition: Music CD
Format: Box set
CD Release Date: 2003-04-08
Music Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Music reviews of Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 1 - 9
Music Review: IF YOU MUST HAVE A BOXED SET, THIS MIGHT BE IT
Rating: 4 Stars
I am deeply suspicious of the "boxed set" mentality and boxed sets in general : more often than not, they result in "boxed set performances." That is, whether or not a given conductor-and-orchestra truly have an entire "cycle" of works in their bones, nevertheless "The Company (i.e., someone in Sales) wants to put out a complete boxed set; we've got, say, three more works to go before the cycle is finished; we have X number of allotted sessions, so let's get THROUGH them shall we." Even if the recordings are spread across the years (and often they are not), still, in those conditions, sense of occasion, discovery, or "special-ness" can go to the wall. (This renders Dorati's Hadyn cycle all the more amazing for being as good as it is.)
Regardless of any conductor's genius, the fact is that only the mediocre are equally good at everything- or all the works within a given cycle...Toscanini was revered as a Brahmsian, but he never quite got the hang of the 3rd Symphony...Kempe's Strauss cycle is essential, but his TOD UND VERKLARUNG, ZARATHUSTRA and HELDENLEBEN are, to put it kindly, somewhat anemic...Solti's Strauss operas are essential, except for his disastrous ARIADNE, where (for all the world as if he were conducting TRISTAN) he misses the irony, sense of fantasy and story-within-a-story and burns the music to a crisp...Most of Beecham's Mozart is treasurable, but he never bothered with the 33rd Symphony; his one commercial reading of the 29th has that notoriously slow first movement; and his ultra-slow EINE KLEINE NACHTMUSIK Finale is similarly plagued with an incompatibility with the work's other three movements...And, more to the point of this review, precious few Brucknerian conductors 'get' the 6th Symphony as well as they 'get' the 4th, 5th, and 7th through 9th ; Steinberg, Klemperer and Horenstein were the shining exceptions...I could go on and on, but you get the idea.
Now, outside of the RING and J.S. Bach's cyclical masterworks - such as the liturgically-linked Cantatas of the CHRISTMAS ORATORIO and "treatise" compilations such as THE WELL-TEMEPERED CLAVIER and THE ART OF THE FUGUE - most great music was not, in fact, composed in "cycles" - and almost never intended to be performed in "cycles." That being said, boxed sets can be a good, economical way to get to know a series of works - but they should almost never be the last word.
This is especially the case with Karajan, who could be extremely variable in terms of energy and sense of involvement. I only bring up "Herbie" because just enough reviewers have placed his DG Bruckner cycle in the same league as Jochum's. (I have also reviewed Haitink's early RCOA Bruckner cycle, but his approach is so different from Jochum's that I will not even try to "compare apples & oranges.") But as I have written elsewhere, when you record, re-record & re-re-record, year in and decade out (as HvK and Ormandy did), then no matter what your genius, you cannot possibly be at your best all - or even most of - the time. That is to say, there will be battles with Ennui, routine, or both. Happily, these culprits may be overcome - or simply outlived - but they WILL appear if you commit to grinding out 'product' like so many sausages.
The best of HvK's earlier work is indeed great. (Think of his Philharmonia Beethoven cycle; his 1951 MEISTERSINGER, and his 1957 Berlin Bruckner 8th - still my favorite.) But by the mid-1960s, HvK had entered a blandly langorous, Pentultimate "Glossy" period in which legatoed beauty of sound tended to usurp all the other functions of music. (HvK's 1970s Beethoven cycle strikes me as a blatant example of "HvGloss" - so much so, that I have often suspected it of giving a good, hard, inadvertant "kick" to the Authenticist Movement.) Then, from about the time of the 1987 Viennese New Years Concert until his death in July 1989, Herbie seems to have retrieved his soul from wherever it had gone, and so his 1989 Bruckner 7th & 8th recapture something of his old magic and intensity - and in spectacular sound. Sadly, HvK's early 1970s Bruckner 4th & 7th tend to be marred by highly 'manipulated' mixing and multi-miking - resulting in an unnaturally lush, detailed sound (and not-so-detailed-at-that, on the LPs and earlier CD transfers). Of course, these date from his Blandly Langorous / Pentultimate / Glossy Period. (Strangely enough, his 1966 DG Bruckner 9th is excellent.)
Still, if you MUST have a boxed set of Bruckner symphonies, Jochum's DG box may just be the way to go. These performances are not as spectacularly recorded as HvK's, but Jochum seems to have a better grasp of structure and the inner contemplative core of Bruckner.
The 1st is stupendous. The 2nd and 3rd strike me as less so, but this may spring from my admittedly inconsistent "textual" bias : I prefer the Haas versions of the 2nd and 8th (this box has the Novak edition of both), and ONLY the 1873 version of the 3rd. The 1877-78 3rd, and the 1889 3rd even more so, may indeed be more concise and "symmetrical" in an almost "Brahmsian" way, but they have always struck me as a progressive stylistic and structural backpedalling from the craggier, more potent 1873. (About ten years ago, a FANFARE or ARG reviewer, writing of the 1889 3rd, put it more succinctly than I ever could : "I love Brahms, but I want my Bruckner free of him." Jochum, of course, preferred the 1889, as did Szell and Bohm.)
The 5th in this box is the 1957 Bavarian Radio version -Jochum's best, to my ears. The 6th strikes me as Jochum's most convincing effort with this quirky masterpiece, although he never quite had as sure a grasp of its "DNA" as he did with the 5th, 7th and 9th - and certainly not as much as in Steinberg's 6th. Jochum's stereo 9th comes across as deeper and more involved than his mono 1954 Bavarian Radio - which still may have been the best commercial 9th until this later one.
And yet, Jochum's 1954 Bavarian Radio 4th, 1952 Berlin 7th, and 1949 Hamburg 8th (none of which are in this box) are more intense and fresher in interpretative impact. The 1954 4th & 9th are in the DG Sprache der Welt series (the 4th only available from amazon.de - that is, the German site). The 1952 Berlin 7th was available on Tahra (before it got axed), and the 1949 Hamburg 8th - Haas version ! - and the 1954 9th were available on a DG Originals 2-fer (which has also met the ax).
True, Jochum's early 80s EMI/ Dresden Bruckner cycle is indeed inspired and radiates an almost manic energy throughout, but what spoils most of it for me is the edgily-recorded, intonation-challenged brass. The fact is, they played MUCH better for Rudolf Kempe in their 1970-76 Strauss cycle. (As a brass player, I can take "edge", and I can take some occasional pitch problems, but not both.) This is REALLY noticeable in the Finale of the 5th, where Jochum - per his usual custom - reinforces the existing brass with "extras" which, to my ears, play excrementally.
My current Bruckner Symphony "list"
(subject to change) :
"00" Inbal 1992....
"0" Haitink / RCOA 1966
1 Haitink / RCOA 1972, Jochum /Berlin 1968
2 Haitink / RCOA 1969, HvK / Berlin
3 Inball 1982 (1873 edition), Haitink (1877-78 edition) / RCOA 1963
4 Jochum / Bavarian Radio 1954, van Beinum / RCOA 1956 (live)
5 Jochum / Bavarian Radio 1957, van Beinum / RCOA 1959 (live)
6 Steinberg / Boston 1969, Klemperer / Philharmonia 1964
7 Jochum / Berlin 1952, van Beinum / ROCA 1947 (Dutton transfer is best)
8 Jochum / Hamburg 1949, HvK Berlin 1957, van Beinum / RCOA 1955
9 Jochum / Berlin, Giulini / Berlin , Wildner / New Westphalia 1998 (with 'realized' 4th movement - see my review)
Still, this site has taught me at least one thing: one person's "gloss" is another's "mystical-worked-out-through-the-technical."
Description of Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 1 - 9
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