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Can you wait a little while?

Posted by Chris from Lafayette (A) on February 21, 2011 at 15:45:42

In Reply to: Bruckner Symphony #4 (Romantic) posted by TeddiJackEddie on February 21, 2011 at 14:33:34:

I've been mightily impressed with a couple of Bruckner cycles now underway, but neither of them has reached the Fourth Symphony yet.

Herbert Blomstedt and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra have been going through the cycle in reverse order: they started with the Ninth on the Decca label and have continued with the 8th, 7th, 6th, and 5th on the Querstand label. The 4th should be next. These recordings, in what is close to SOTA sound (especially as heard via SACD), derive from concert performances, so there is some audience noise, but in every other respect, such as playing quality and interpretive insight, they're just outstanding! Blomstedt also made a couple of earlier recordings of the Fourth, the more recent of which is with the SF Symphony - I believe it was very well received (I haven't heard it), but the SF Symphony does not cultivate the type of rich "sound" which is so appropriate for Bruckner (and which the LGO just naturally produces). Blomstedt made an even earlier recording for Denon with the Dresden Staatskapelle - this was also very well received (I used to own it), but the sound quality, although good for its time (mid-80's?), does not have the realism of the recent Querstand recordings.

The other current cycle (or at least I think it may become a cycle) that I love is the one with Paavo Järvi and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony on Sony-BMG. I don't know why Järvi's European recordings seem to be so much better than the ones he's been making in Cincinnati, but that's the way it seems to me. So far, Järvi has recorded only the Ninth and the Seventh, but those recordings are spectacular! Järvi imparts nuance as well as power to the music making - and the melodic inflections are sometimes very striking IMHO.

This is not to say that there aren't quite a few recordings already available that are also top-notch. Among the available recordings that I can vouch for are: Böhm/VPO (Decca), Celibidache/Munich (EMI - careful, this is a one-of-a-kind S-L-O-W performance), Jansons/RCOA (RCOA-Live), Skrowaczewski/Saarbrucken Radio Sym (Oehms), Karajan/BPO (EMI - I only had the LP, which was a bit muddy sound-wise), Mehta/LAPO (Decca - not the right sonority, but still excellent), Kubelik/BRSO (Sony) - I'm sure there are a few I'm forgetting. I also want to let you know that I'm not that familiar with the cycles by Jochum (either one), Solti, Tennstedt, and Tintner, and I used to have only the older Wand cycle - not his more recent recordings.

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