Repertoire: The IDEAL Bruckner Cycle
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.พ. 2021
- By popular demand, here is a Bruckner symphony cycle with no weak links whatsoever, and featuring nine different conductors--one for each of the standard, canonic symphonies. However, as an extra bonus, I will also tell you which conductor (to date) has made the single best complete cycle in a box.
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I don't think i can express how grateful i am for these reviews Dave. Really appreciate the time you spend making these.
My pleasure!
Agreed!!!
Skrowaczewski did wonderful work generally, but he really lived and breathed Bruckner, from childhood. A few months before he died at age 93, he conducted by memory the Bruckner 8th with the Minnesota Orchestra. Everyone sensed that it was to be his his last concert, and it was a stupendous performance. Quite stunning, really. He was also a notably kind and generous person, by all accounts.
I love his Brahms Fourth too, and it is my favorite performance of that symphony. Give it a listen if you get a chance!
Since I tuned into this channel you have introduced me to so many new works and recordings that I'm afraid I won't be able to get to Bruckner until 2072. Forgive me, all.
That's OK. He's not going anywhere, and by then there should be at least 50 or 60 more critical editions of various versions of the symphonies.
Totally agree with you regarding the Solti and Mahler's second symphony. This has been a favourite of mine for years. Have to admit I tend to enjoy most of Solti's renderings. Really enjoying your channel and you always put a smile on my face, plus to have turned me on to some wonderful new to me recordings.Keep up the good work 😎😎
Excellent review. Informative and quite entertaining! Thank you!
The first time I listened to Bruckner, it was his Third Symphony, I think the Solti version with Chicago. I remember I couldn't believe my ears listening to the brass chorales, the trumpets and horns soaring up into jazz lead high range over and over again, without sacrificing a warm, full orchestral tone. I'd never heard anything like it. Then I realized it was a 33 record and I was playing it at 45. At 33 the range of the brass writing made a lot more sense and I still like Bruckner, but I still wish sometimes that the impossible high range playing I thought I heard that first time was the reality of the music!
Thanks Dave, daily waiting for a new Repertoire video of yours.
My IDEAL Bruckner Cycle:
1: Abbado/WP (Decca)
2: Chailly/RCO (Decca)
3: Böhm/WP (Decca)
4: Celibidache/MP (EMI) I like too: Böhm/WP and Barenboim/CSO
5: Jochum/Dresden (EMI)
6: Klemperer/NPO (EMI)
7: Barenboim/BP (Teldec)
8: Giulini/WP (DG) for me the symphony with the most disappointing performances
9: Mehta/WP (Decca) my favorite is really Barenboim/BP
0:11 love it already
Thank you, Dave, for this concise and fascinating Ideal Bruckner Cycle. I particularly enjoyed your humorous comparisons with respect to the various versions. I agree wholeheartedly when it comes to editions, though none of your picks would have been mine. Here is my list:
1: Skrowaczewski . Vigorous and uncomplicated.
2: Maazel/BRSO. Superbly played and compelling. From an underrated live cycle.
3: 1890 version: Schuricht/EMI. Utterly natural and unforced.
4: Bruno Walter. Affectionate. lyrical, superb brass playing in scherzo, best coda in IV.
5: Jochum/EMI. Warmly yrical and majestic. Great brass playing from Dresden.
6. Horst Stein. An all but forgotten conductor. Superb, incisive playing from VPO.
7. Karajan/VPO. The maestro's final recording and his best Bruckner.
8: Böhm/DG. Another underrated Brucknerian. A vividly dramatic and cogent account.
9: I would have cited Jochum/EMI until I recently heard the Honeck/Pittsburgh. Honeck's is even more intense than Jochum, but better played with an unbelievably vivid recording.
Best cycle: Jochum/EMI. Interpretively, at least, if not always the best played.
thank you, once again, David. insightful !!!
Really enjoyed this video. My ideal cycle:
0) Haitink/Concertgebouw
1) Barenboim/BPO
2) Giulini/VSO
3) Blomstedt/Leipzig (1873)
3) Sinopoli/Dresden (1877)
4) Bohm/VPO
5) Sawallisch/BRSO
6) Stein/VPO
7) Jochum/BPO
8) Karajan/VPO
9) Walter/Columbia
Boxset - Karajan
This was a review well worth waiting for, a really solid overview of the canonic Bruckner symphonies. Your comments on why doing something similar for Bruckner sets makes perfect sense. But it would be fun to see a video on which Bruckner sets to avoid!
Ah yes, I’d been eagerly awaiting the Brrrrrrrruuuuuuckner ideal cycle. Now I have to go grab my lego set so I can assemble them all! I think you’ve put together a very fine cycle, although of course I’d opt for either Celibidache 8. For a sleeper, I recently listened to that Linos Emsemble Bruckner 7 with a chamber orchestra and a harmonium and it works shockingly well. Skro is my favorite cycle, so I’m quite glad you selected it as the best of the ever-burgeoning bunch. No need to listen to 1200 other cycles when you own that one. And yes, let’s let dear old Anton repose for some time now!
I think I need you saying Bruckner as my ringtone LOL
I agree. Hilarious. My daughter just shouted it out!!!
BRRRRUCKNAAAAHHH
Until that happens I (still) use a sniplet of Bruckner's 3rd as my tingtone - recorded in 1938 as a fanfare.
I'd instead put Celibidache for either B4 or B6 and Giulini for B9. Also if I pick Abbado/Berlin for B1 that leaves Tintner for B6. Special mention: Rattle or Schaller (revised) for completed B9.
I’m thrilled. You described my car with exacting precision.
Ha ha ha, my car too. Different Bruckner recordings everywhere...
Great idea...an all star team to salute the art of Bruckner.
Great! We now have the definite New York version of these symphonies... The one to rule them all. Happy to see Sinopoli and Chailly in the list; the Italians often know how to add a touch of flavor to Bruckner...
I wanted to do this for a long time! Here is my ideal cycle (without repeating conductors):
*Symphony No. 1* (Linz Version)
Claudio Abbado/Wiener Philharmoniker (1997)
*Symphony No. 2*
Stanislaw Skrowaczewski/Saarbücken Radio Symphony Orchestra
*Symphony No. 3* "Wagner" (1873 version)
Herbert Blomstedt/Berliner Philharmoniker
*Symphony 4* "Romantic" (1878/80 version)
Sergiu Celibidache/Münchner Philharmoniker (1988)
*Symphony No. 5*
Eugen Jochum/Staatskapelle Dresden
*Symphony No. 6*
Juanjo Mena/BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
*Symphony No. 7*
Bernard Haitink/Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam (1978)
*Symphony No. 8* (1887/1890 version, Haas ed.)
Günter Wand/NDR Sinfonieorchester (1987, at Lübeck Cathedral; alternatively: 1990, at Musikhalle Hamburg)
*Symphony No. 9*
Carlo Maria Giulini/Wiener Philharmoniker
Thank you, David, that was great. And thanks to Primephonic, they are now all on a new playlist. Well, maybe not the Lubeck , but still. Tidal not so complete.
The Skrowaczewski Bruckner Symphonies are not available on Amazon on CD anymore (my order just was cancelled). However, I found a CD level 16/44 download of the entire set on Qobuz downloads, purchased for $19.77US.
I've been waiting for this forever
Thanks, absolutely agree with you about Klemperer - he has the edge on no 6!
Waleri Gergiew, Münchner Philharmoniker. A new recording and very good. Greetings from Germany.
Thank you very much. I am pleased w/my Jochum/ SD box and my Barenboim/CSO box plus a few singles I keep. I shall check into your 'best box' recommendation. I do greatly enjoy the Bongartz/Leipzig 6. The new box I am greatly anticipating is the one with the Martian versions recently discovered on that planet! The Interstellar Consortium of Alien Brucknerites has funded the recording featuring Finis Glork and the Martian Philharmonic performing in the Valles Marineris.
As always, interesting choices. Here's my attempt from No. 3 onwards with a different conductor for each one.
No. 3 (1878): Matacic/Philharmonia (live, 1983). BBC Legends
No. 4: Böhm/VPO. Decca
No. 5: Wand/NDR live. RCA
No. 6: Haitink/Concertgebouw. Philips/Decca
No. 7: Van Beinum/Concertgebouw. Decca
No. 8: Giulini/VPO. DG
No. 9: Jochum/Berlin PO. DG
This was highly amusing.
Another solid and highly consistent Bruckner cycle with no weak recording (at least in my opinion) is Wand/Cologne
It's very good, but I don't think the Fifth or the Seventh are at the same level as the rest--certainly not as good as his later recordings.
Stilling loving your videos, even when about BRUCKNER and Haydn Symphonies. 🤪
Great list! I have to have a go myself:
1: VPO/Abbado (DG)
2: Concertgebouw/Chailly
3: BRSO/Jansons
4: BPO/Wand
5: VPO/Harnoncourt
6: BRSO/Haitink
7: BPO/Karajan (EMI)
8: VPO/Giulini
9: BPO/Barenboim
Very good choices
I don’t know why you say it like that but it cracks me up every time.
That's why.
Love the tongue in cheek sarcastic metaphors. You always want lycra.
Can you please review the mango and kiwi versions of the Bruckner Second? Solti’s strawberry version just doesn’t do it for me 😁 Thanks for another great talk!
I will try! Tropical fruit just wasn't Bruckner's thing, unfortunately, although I do believe the Fourth comes in guava.
@DavesClassicalGuide Hello David, would you know of any book covering the bruckner's symphonies the same way than your books do for Shostakovich, Mahler and so on....I have most of yours but could not find anything on Bruckner (and very limited for Tchaikovsky). Thank you
Well, I wrote it, but music publishing is pretty dead right now...
@@DavesClassicalGuide That won't do! I want it and so do many others 🙂 I use your books to get familiar with a work and then enjoy the various interpretations. Essential for me.
Very interesting as usual! My ideal Bruckner cycle would look like this:
1. Chailly / RSO Berlin
2. Nelsons / Leipzig
3. Nezet-Seguin / Staatskapelle Dresden
4. Wand / Berlin
5. Celibidache / Munich
6. Blomstedt / San Francisco
7. Karajan / Vienna
8. Giulini / Vienna
9. Barenboim / Berlin [1991]
Cyril good to see some love for Barenboim's B9 from 1991. It is a gun performances! B
My Choice
No 1-VPO/ Abbado
No 2- VSO/ Giulini
No 3- VPO/ Bohm
No 4 BPO/ Wand
No 5 - Cleveland /Dohnanyi
No 6- Klemperer
No 7 - RCO Haitink 78
No 8 - VPO/ Karajan
No 9 - Dresden / Jochum
Thoughts on the live 1986 Concertgebouw-Jochum No. 5 on Tahra, anyone? I don't remember seeing it mentioned in the comments either here or on the video on the 5th, unlike the earlier Philips one from Ottobeuren... As usual, great video, Dave!
The live Jochum 1986 B5 is excellent but to my ears the overall sonority is more blended and less characterful than his earlier Dresden performance. Superbly played.
@@barrygray8903 Thanks for the comment, Barry!
My Bruckner CD library:
Num.2 - Tintner/Naxos
Num.3 - Nagano/Harmonia Mundi
Num.4 - Bohm/Decca
Num.5 - Harnoncourt/RCA
Num.6 - Davis/LSO
Num.7 - Karajan/DG and Sanderling/Hanssler
Num.8 - Karajan/DG and Tintner/Naxos
Num.9 - Giulini/DG and Harnoncourt/RCA
Yes, I love Sinopoli/Dresden for B3 as well. For me, Honeck/Pittsburgh for B4. The Sawllisch B5 is as good or better than any. Klemperer did it really well too. For B6 I'm fond of Horst Stein/V.P.O. Chailly is a solid and interesting pick for B7. I'm drawn to Karajan's EMI recording of it. Can't argue with Wand/Lubeck for B8. I like both of Karl Bohm's B8 recordings (DG and Palexa). For B9 I'm partial to Giulini/Chicago. Certainly Jochum is great. So many great choices available now. So many!
The Sinopoli 3 doesn’t seem to be available as a download on either Amazon or iTunes. Don’t know about any other site that still does classical. It can be streamed but I’m against streaming on principle. The cd’s on eBay are too much for my blood
My noob-level-listener cycle so far (containing only 'smokers'):
Bruckner 2: Stein, VPO - Eloquence
Bruckner 3: Solti!, CSO - Decca (Holy Smoke! Only need this one!)
Bruckner 4: Wand!, BPO - RCA (Hot!)
Bruckner 6: Klemperer 1965, New Philharmonia, Warner/Japanese Sacd (What a marvel!)
Bruckner 7: Karajan!, VPO - DG (Goosebumps guaranteed)
Bruckner 8: Maazel - Seraphim
Bruckner 9: Giulini, VPO - DG
Your videos are a daily delight, thank you David! Agree w/ you about Jochum for the 9th. And curious what you think of the recent Nelsons recording of the 9th.
BTW, when are we going to get to the German symphonist we know you *really* love? -- Spohr!
Here is my review from classicstoday.com of the Nelsons B9:
This next installment in Andris Nelson’s ongoing project to record bad Bruckner coupled with boring Wagner runs true to form. Unfortunately. Aren’t you tired of the endless stream of bad Bruckner recordings fouling the catalog like some sort of noxious, invasive species of musical vegetation? I know I sure am. Bruckner used to be almost the exclusive preserve of cranky old German conductors-plus Eugen Jochum. No one else really mattered. Then the likes of Karajan and Haitink got their hands on him, and that was mostly OK too. Now everyone is doing it.
The situation is similar to what happened with Mahler, only with three principal differences. The first is that, expressively speaking, Bruckner has a much more limited range. There’s nothing particularly wrong with this, of course. His music is more than distinctive enough to substantiate its claims to greatness. The second difference stems from the fact that his music is technically much easier to play and conduct-even boring, especially for the strings and woodwinds, if you don’t have a feeling for its special sound world.
Finally, Bruckner attracts many young conductors who seem to have little affinity with the sonata-form syntax of German classical and romantic music. This is because his sectional approach to form, contrasting large blocks of sound in alternation, bears a superficial resemblance to much contemporary music (think: Messiaen, for example). This affinity is real, but it’s not the whole story. Bruckner still expected his interpreters to create genuine forward momentum, even drama, but too often they fail to grasp the problem entirely. The result, as here, is simply boring.
Of course, the Gewandhaus Orchestra knows this music better than Nelsons, and the playing in unfailingly “pretty,” but it’s also as dull as ditch water. Compare the recapitulation in the first movement of the Sixth to a performance by a true Brucknerian like Jochum (sound clips). Nelsons homogenizes the textures like oobleck, or some other sort of slimy, non-Newtonian fluid. The harder he pushes, the thicker it gets. Brass timbres are undifferentiated. Bruckner’s canonic writing comes across as a fuzzy blur. On the other hand, in the slow movement, the tension just goes completely slack. Moment by moment you might enjoy certain bits, but the total impression is a nullity.
The same observations apply to the Ninth Symphony as well. Listen to Nelsons versus Jochum in the scherzo. The former is dense and heavy, the latter savage, intense, and disturbing. Which would you rather hear? Which is truer to Bruckner’s vision? Finally, why on earth is Nelsons recording this music anyway? Maybe it doesn’t matter and no one is paying attention, but his fine Shostakovich recordings in Boston reveal that there is substance to this man. These releases do him no justice, and it’s a shame he’s not sharp enough to realize it.
Oh yes-then there’s Wagner, a snooze of a different type. The Siegfried-Idyll comes across more as Siegfried’s Piddle. Lasting more than twenty minutes, it sounds interminable. It drips. The Parsifal Prelude is better, but also strangely static. Why can’t Nelsons make any of this music move? The fact that it’s slow is no excuse. The dull sonics may be partly to blame. Still, there’s a difference between slow and dead. Brace yourself: there’s lot’s more to come.
As always very competent and entertaining, but here I have disagreements with Hurwitz. I like Jochum and Wand as Bruckner conductors, but for me, 7 and 8 has to be Celibidache, there is just nothing like it. With Giulini as back-up. For the 9 I like several recordings, including Bernstein and Vienna. Also Blomstedt is s fine Bruckner conductor who doesn’t get much line from Hurwitz.
Seems like the Sawallish 5th w/ BRSO is a bit hard to come by (unavailable on both arkivmusic and amazon). How's the 5 he did with Philly that's now available for download?
Not as good. You can download the Fifth on ITunes.
Available for download on Prestomusic
Haven’t watched the video yet HOWEVER I’m going to post my ideal cycle beforehand in order to not be influenced.
0, Young, Hamburg
1, Abbado, Vienna
2, Young, Hamburg
3, Tintner, Scotland
4, Böhm, Vienna
5, Skrowaczewski
6, Jochum, Dresden
7, Karajan, Vienna
8, Karajan, Vienna
9, Jochum, Dresden
I really don’t feel the need to avoid repetition. But, hypothetically, at gunpoint:
0, I’d remove from the list
6, Klemperer, Philharmonia
8, Wand, NDR
Excellent, but do you have a second option for the 8th you can find in Spotify? Thanks!
Sorry, no.
😥
The excellent recordings of B8 by Boulez, Maazel (BPO), Karajan (VPO), Giulini, and Janowski are currently on Spotify.
@@barrygray8903 thanks!
I really enjoyed this, gilt nicht and all. It calls to mind an unusual phenomenon: that of the "Bruckner conductor." Of course, Jochum had a pretty strong career and more diverse repertoire. However, he doesn't seem to occupy much of the modern psyche outside discussions of Bruckner, certainly not like other conductors do. Skrowaczewski? Universally celebrated as a consistently strong Bruckner interpreter. But when else does he come up in current conversation, at least in similar terms? It's almost like the entire state of Bruckner fandom operates in its own independent musical universe.
Don't get me wrong. I'm a fan of Bruckner symphonies too. But I like lots of fluff as well.
Gunter Wand's fate has followed the Jochum model.
@@geoffgrundy I wouldn't say so, his Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, all up there. Actually come to think of it, same for Jochum! Maybe the key similarity is that their bread and butter was the German Romantics, and not so much Mahler.
I finally pieced together an ideal Bruckner symphony cycle:
1. Jochum/BPO
2. Solti/CSO
3. Haitink/VPO
4. Bohm/VPO
5. Chailly/RCO
6. Stein/VPO
7. Karajan/VPO
8. Giulini/VPO
9. Wand/NDR (1994)
In other words, the best "Spam." LOL
Is that story about the score falling out of Bruckner's pocket in the Ringstrasse and eventually being found true?
I wasn't there...
I saw the New York Phil do Bruckner 8 in St. John the Divine. I don't know who had the idea to do Bruckner 8 in the largest cathedral in the western hemisphere, but they were out of their mind. It may have sounded better up close, but when you're 100-200 feet away from an orchestra with a ten second reverb, you can barely hear anything.
Also, the performance wasn't very good--at least it was free!
I had the same experience there with the War Requiem. It was horrendous.
Dave, I am confused. I thought you were going to discuss what in your opinion the best complete box set of Bruckner symphonies was. Instead you seem to discuss the best symphony number 1in the first box set, the best number 2 in the second box set. Am I missing something?
Yes. I explain exactly what I am doing and why in the video.
@@DavesClassicalGuide ah yes, sorry, I was confused because in the video you show complete box sets.
@@oeneroorda2699 Yes, sorry. That's what I had on hand for "show and tell."
Call me a Philistine, but the only symphony I had difficulty warming up to until recently was Symphony No. 2. That is, until I heard Schaller's performance, and with the Adagio movement played as the third movement. It is the only symphony that I prefer Schaller in. Otherwise, it is Jochum all the way for me.
Try listening to Jochum with the inner movements reversed!
@@DavesClassicalGuide Hadn't thought of that. I will do that.
Thank you for this illuminating survey of Bruckner’s symphony cycle. I agree that all of your recommendations here are outstanding performances with one exception: Klemperer’s Sixth. I know all of this is very subjective, but I found his tempi a bit odd, and the tempo he summons in the opening movement puts it in the not-so-sweet spot of where the principal theme comes across like Albert Morris’ “Feelings.” Another issue I hear is that the orchestral color has a little too much “stinky cheese” going on, especially from the double reed section. Am I being too picky? I brought this to your attention because the performance, while certainly strong, is a bit more flawed than other performances I have heard you endorse as top picks. Nonetheless, you have unusually exquisite taste, and I am excited as always for more of your videos with new (too me, at least) performances into which to dive.
It's not flawed at all. You may not like it, but that's a different issue entirely. It seems that we hear similar things in it, but simply characterize them differently. That's as it should be, I think, and it helps to have different perspectives arising from the same observations.
That is my mistake as the issues I brought up are nothing more than personal tastes, and nothing is objectively flawed with his performance. For example, I love the color of the woodwinds in Kletzki’s Beethoven 8 and would describe it as pleasantly tangy, but the line between tangy and acrid are different for everyone. I really should have know better than to state a personal preference as though it were an objective fact.
Dave - greetings from the Penal Colonies. Your best ursine exclamations of “BBBRRRUUUCCCCKKKNNNEEERRR” are accompanied by a wild light in your eyes which is evident here.
Remember, Carragan is out there somewhere, building his Brucknerian Doomsday Bomb. BTW, “counting mail-boxes . . . which he had a tendency to do” is a gun line - bravo.
Here is my list, which bears the imprimatur of the President of the Australian Knappertsbusch Association - who so happens to be me!
Bruckner 1 (& Helgoland) - Barenboim & Berlin Phil. I disagree with your good self here. There are marked differences between Linz and Vienna where Robert Simpson was so right to take a cricket bat to the latter.
Bruckner 2 - Jochum DG
Bruckner 3 - Sinopoli
Bruckner 4 - Wand & Berlin Philharmonic.
Bruckner 5 - Eichorn & Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. What a performance!
Bruckner 6 - Sawallisch Orfeo
Bruckner 7 - Chailly Decca 1984
Bruckner 8 - Karajan ’88 where the finale has been replaced by the stereo job from 1944.
Bruckner 9 - Siegmund von Hausegger from 1938 - Zeitgeist central and amazingly good, sound-wise.
Dave, I also hasten to add - respectfully - that I query any list that does not include at least one nomination of Karajan whose Orbital Majesty in Bruckner is sui generis. Nevertheless that is your perogative where subjectivity is king.
Best wishes, B
Bernard, that is an interesting list, but I would also be curious to know what your ideal list would be if you were allowed to repeat conductors?
@@flowsouth8496 FS8 lways good to hear you and thank you for the question (for what my views are worth).
One must start with the foundational play in this domain. Like Bruckner, I am a member of the Old Firm, albeit a liberal one. Accordingly, my Bruckner is a Seeker of Presence. Metaphysical ordnance is cardinal. To touch the hem of his garment. Other perspectives are possible and just as valid. Dave has said that he is not the most spiritual person in the world - no dramas at all. Bruckner means something else to him, not least, as a magnificent canon of symphonic music. One has to call it as one sees it. Nevertheless, this determinant shapes allegiances, Bruckner-wise. I have little or no affinity with Jochum’s gear-box narrative, whilst acknowledging that his DG cycle is better than the EMI job. To the task at hand!
Bruckner 1 - Barenboim & the Berlin Phil. Bruckner becomes Bruckner in that self-sustaining blaze-up in the finale. Great performance of Helgoland as well. (No change)
Bruckner 2 - Jochum DG. My friend David from Philly will murder me for this nomination - but artistically it is close enough to Karajan and the recording is more natural. To be more pacific than a certain ocean. No change.
Bruckner 3 - Karajan & the Berlin Phil in the 1889 edition which may not be a paragon of logic but has less padding than its two siblings. To burn down the house - wham, bam thank you Ma’am! What fun this is! That said, the Penguin Guide astutely drew attention to its otherworldliness in the slow movement. Who is it that walks in the evening in the cool of the day? (Change).
Bruckner 4 - Again, I am a Karajan Man x 2. The DG recording has the “30 seconds over God” in the chorale of the first movement, whereas the EMI / Warner has a ferocity and fearfulness to its opening and close of the finale that you just don’t get in Wand with the same orchestra twenty years later. (Change)
Bruckner 5. Here is the first of my two hybrids - Barenboim and the Berlin Phil for the outer movements & Scherzo and Karajan’s sui generis slow movement (at 22 minutes) for the remainder. Dave is right to say that weighting in the chorale of the finale is everything. (Change)
Bruckner 6 - again, Karajan. Since its release, everyone noticed the jumpiness of the start. This has been mitigated somewhat in the latest HD transfer. The Legion Vast soon regains its feet. The Timpani Recapitulation, some eight minutes into the first movement, is perfection itself. I became a convert to Bruckner on the spot. (change)
Bruckner 7 - Karajan 1975. Well-known reviewer Sante Fe Listener wrote a wonderful survey of HvK’s B7s on Amazon. I too landed on this first recording for DG on account of its grip and drama. The climax in the slow movement builds like that Tsunami in Interstellar with Matthew McConaughey. (Change).
Bruckner 8 - Karajan ’88 with the finale in stereo from 1944. No change. The last three minutes of this finale are more superhuman than a certain luminary from the Planet Krypton. (No change).
Bruckner 9 - Barenboim and Berlin Phil, 1993. DB aced it on the night - no other explanation is possible. No other recording of the B9 bears testimony to Simpson’s observation that there are moments in the first and third movements where the composer is terrified by his own creation.
I
hope this helps. Subjectivity is king and all the more so when it is written on sand.
Best wishes, B
@@bernardohanlon3498 Thank you so much for this thorough and thoughtful list Bernard, I really appreciate it. It is fascinating how the no-repeat ideal list brings out variety while the repeat one more shows your preference and is weighted toward specific performers.
Your choices will certainly be influenced by what you think is important. In any case, it would seem completely wrong to play Bruckner mechanically without any feeling behind it. Personally, I think the engineering side of recordings is often downplayed, and the sound quality can have a significant impact on how much you enjoy it.
@@bernardohanlon3498 Would DB be forgiven for all the sausage making the last few decades since he took 2.75 spots of the top honors? ;-)
@@DC-fx7uq Mate, forgiveness is forthcoming as decreed by the Australian Knappertsbusch Association - keep safe, B!