Bruckner: Complete Symphonies [George Tintner] [Naxos: 8501205]

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Could you give an example or two of music actually composed by Haas, not just retrieved by him from the unrevised first version? I'd be very interested to know. This, the first published edition of the symphony, was prepared by Cyrill Hynais and was until recently thought to be inauthentic, but Carragan has shown that it corresponds closely to the 1877 version. This first edition was performed on 25 November 1894 by the Vienna Philharmonic under Hans Richter. I was listening to his Tchaikovsky's 4th the other night actually, with the very same band...seems he only recorded with the Gezundheit Orchestra when he knew it was being recorded for live broadcast... The violin solo ... in duple quarters and duple eighths, ... together with the rhythmic complexities already caused by the shift from sextuplets to quintuplets in the first violins, ... must have created an amazingly detailed sound – not to say an impenetrable musical fog." [7] In the coda, the solo horn, which was considered unplayable by the horn-player, was replaced by the first clarinet and the viola section. Daniel Barenboim conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, 1997 (using a pre-publ. Carragan ed.) - Teldec CD 3984 21485-2

The seventh is quite simply a marvellous work, containing some of the sunniest and darkest of the composers emotions. (It rather reminds me in some ways of the insanity of Schumann’s second). For the seventh there are many recommendations. Tintner’s 1996 is the obvious bargain choice, a superb recording all round. The only recording that comes close to challenging it is Gunter Wand’s 1999 recording. This is an impressive recording characterised by long phrases with a splendidly paced finale. The nullte is an attractive work of some substance, the slow movement particularly fine. Tintener on Naxos is once again a clear recommendation as it comes coupled with a difficult- to- acquire first recording of the eighth. Chaiily with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and the more pacy Haitink on Philips are also recommended though, to my knowledge both of these are only available as part of box-sets.

Motets

I could go on and on, but you have by now figured out that this is another Naxos masterpiece. Once more we are indebted to Klaus Heymann for providing us with a masterly recording. At the price, it would be sin to not buy to this disc. Walter's Fourth is truly in a class by itself, also according to my wife, me and musical friends. There's heart and soul there---and wonderful sound!

If you assemble a set via different conductors, here's some thoughts: (I'll skip the ones you already have, and try to stay cheap.) In his distinguished booklet essay, the Italian writer and broadcaster Oreste Bossini speaks of the performance’s polyphonic transparency and the naturalness and fluidity of its pacing. Even in the Thielemann should be mentioned for the exceptional Fifth he recorded, absolutely one of the finest available. I agree with the recommendation for Karajan and the VPO for the eigth, only I think the live performance they gave about a decade earlier that's out on a DG DVD is even better.This new Eighth is exceptionally fine. When in the Scherzo you sense that the mountains tllemselves are beginning to dance, you know you are onto a good thing; on this occasion, Olympus itself seems to have caught the terpsichorean bug, Not that anything is exaggerated or overblown. After all these years, Wand knows where each peak is and how best to approach it. His reading is broader than it was 20 years ago, which is perhaps just as well given the Berliners' own predilections, yet nowhere is there any sense of unwanted stasis.' Richard Osborne I'm least familiar with 5 but rather like Wand/NDRSO and posting this reminds me that I'm overdue for another go, perhaps with Skrowaczewski/SRSO this time, which I don't think I've heard since shortly after I bought it! 6--Horst Stein & the WP; 7--HvK BP or WP; 8-HvK/WP (Boulez is overdue for re-evaluation, however); 9--Giulini/WP. The sound is excellent, the camerawork sensitive and technically first-rate. Abbado himself is invariably the main focus of attention and he’s wonderful to watch: theatrical posing and outsize gestures are evidently foreign to his nature. What you see is clear cueing, a discernible beat and subtle facial responses. The players vary in age and appearance: no stiffening dress-code clamps down with unwarranted formality, just well-dressed men and women totally into the business of making great music. And boy, do they deliver!' Rob Cowan Inbal,Frankfurt .Teldec. Excellent performance of the radically different original, with a completely different scherzo instead of the familiar hunting one. He spent a year with the Cape Town Municipal Orchestra (1966–67) and three years with Sadler's Wells Opera (1967–70) before returning to Australia as music director of the West Australian Opera. In 1974, he rejoined the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust Opera, by then known as the Australian Opera. He became music director of the Queensland Theatre Orchestra in 1976.

Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker, studio recording, 1981, Deutsche Grammophon I agree that the BPO does a wonderful job in the fourth, but I would go with the Jocum/DG and Karajan/EMI recordings that they made. I prefer the former for a more aggressive approach, and the latter is IMO better than the Bohm/VPO recording for something a bit slower and more reverential in approach. Boehm,VPO,Decca. Haitink,Concertgebouw, Philips. Inbal,Frankfurt RSO (original version. ) . Knappertsbusch,VPO,Decca(should definitely be reissued on CD). Karajan,BPO,DG. Wand, Cologne RSO, EMI. Perhaps the greatest of all recordings of the work, spacious, involved, profoundly human. So persuasive is Giulini’s interpretation, it makes it almost impossible to take seriously the attempt at a more detached, monumental approach found in Daniel Barenboim’s more recent Teldec performance. Giulini’s ability to convey fervour without sentimentality is little short of miraculous, and it’s clear from the way the early stages of the first movement effortlessly project an ideal balance between the lyrical and the dramatic that this reading will be exceptional. The recording might not have the dynamic range of current digital issues, and resonance can sound rather artificial in louder passages. There’s also an obtrusive extension of the trumpet triplets seven bars before the end of the first movement. But such things count for less than nothing in the face of a performance which culminates in a finale of such glowing spontaneity you could almost believe that the orchestra are playing it for the first time, and that neither they (nor any other orchestra) will ever play it better.

Giulini/VPO is my favorite. His CSO recording is also a nice one, as are Jochum/BPO on DG, Karajan's 60's BPO recording on DG (he made one in the 70s for them too I think), Kubeli/BRSO on Orfeo and Furtwangler/BPO. If you already have Karajan/EMI, you have one of the better ones. If you want to try something more aggressive, and also with the BPO, try Jochum's recording on DG. But Tintner can also go spectacularly wrong, as with the choice of the original, 1887 version of the Eighth, which ends with a fortissimo climax as opposed to the wonderful and devastating pianissimo ending of the 1890 version. I'm not sure that Tintner really believes that the 1887 version is musically superior (I hope not!). In the liner notes he makes the guarded comment that the original version "shows an almost primitive spontaneity". Klemperer,New Philharmonia,EMI. The version I learned this great symphony on, and I became so accustomed to its very broad tempi other performances sounded too fast to me, but I've since gotten accustomed to them. I think Jochum is fine for at least the first three; I enjoy the old Walter/Columbia Sym. for the Fourth most, the Fifth is excellent (as Lance stated) with Knappertsbusch VPO (and the cymbals at the end!), Klemperer hands down for the Sixth, and the Seventh with Tintner or Böhm is wonderful. The Eighth again with Jochum, but I haven't heard Tintner's. I also still love Bruno Walter for the Ninth.

Wildner’s conviction is immediately apparent in the first movement: Listen as he builds the opening’s two great climaxes with arresting force, then infuses the following lyrical second subject with an ingratiating warmth. Fine as the first movement is, it’s actually the Adagio and Finale that benefit most from Wildner’s probing conducting, as both movements sound with a rare formal coherence married to dramatic impact. As a bonus, the first disc of this double set also includes the composer’s intermediate version (1876) of the Adagio. I recently acquired an older recording of Harnoncourt conducting the 7th with again, the Wiener Philharmoniker, onm Teldec and enjoyed it a great deal. I was very happy with how he shaped the overall line of the piece, yet not abandoning tiny details, and that rhythmic drive, oh man! Adagio: In the fifth section a solo violin was added from bar 150 to bar 164. During the rehearsal, violin soloist Heinz Haunold told: "... the violin solo at that point of the movement effectively prevented the orchestra from rising to the great climax ... but it also contained a fatal trap for the performers of the symphony." [7] [8] Nowak edition (1965): this edition still contains residues of the Haas' "mixed version" - among others an error in the trumpet parts at the end of the first movement: [10]He paces this performance with an extreme sureness of step; in fact it builds inevitably from the plodding downward tread of the opening double bass line, to the magnificent culmination of the finale. Now, that's nothing to sneeze at ! (Is this a take-off on the Cologne (Köln) "Gürzenich" Orchestra?) Järvi offers an extremely beautiful performance, responsively played and, most crucially, sensitive to key transitions. There are many subtleties, while the finale’s angrily strutting second set will have your woofers quaking. Incidentally, in Järvi’s Adagio those hymn-like string chords are mightily sonorous and the no-holds-barred climax – with percussion this time – is extremely effective though the ritardando 'in' is perhaps a mite excessive. Finale: A "very dissonant section of the development", [6] which includes at one point a striking alternation of short viola notes with pizzicato chords in the rest of the strings, was removed. These original bold and adventurous bars 305–360 were substituted for a new, 24-bar, very charming " Neuer Satz" (new passage). [9]