Issued three times a year and sold by subscription www.brucknerjournal.co.uk Editorial: [email protected] 23 Mornington Grove, Bow, London E3 4NS Subscriptions and Mailing: [email protected] 4 Lulworth Close, Halesowen, B63 2UJ 01384 566383 VOLUME ELEVEN, NUMBER TWO, JULY 2007 Editor: Ken Ward Managing Editor: Raymond Cox. Associate Editors: Peter Palmer, Crawford Howie, Nicholas Attfield In this issue NO BRUCKNER AT THE SOUTH BANK This issue of The Bruckner Journal has more than the usual Concert reviews page 4 complement of concert reviews, and readers might be tempted CD & DVD reviews page 15 to assume from this that all is well in the world of concert performances. But it needs to be pointed out that we are Sir Simon Rattle on Bruckner page 19 fortunate with this issue to have received many reviews of concerts outside the UK, and these are welcome indeed - Bruckner Orchester Linz especially as some of them report on significant concerts such as by Franz Zamazal page 22 a performance of the first version of the 8th in Lisbon, and a Music and Mystical Experience première of a Performing Version of the Finale to the 9th in by Erling E Guldbrandsen page 23 Aachen. But in assembling the concert listings at the back of the Mystery in the Music of Anton journal I always keep my eye open for performances of the Bruckner - by Crawford Howie page 30 Masses, psalm settings, Helgoland and lesser known sacred or secular choral works. Half a dozen or so of the motets and Mass Genius of Naivety - Hans Keller No. 2 turn up fairly frequently because of the small forces on reactions to Bruckner page 33 required; Mass No. 3 and the Te Deum you can hear once in a while if you’re prepared to travel in Europe - but as for the rest, How well do Bruckner’s these works are very rarely, if ever, performed. And indeed, interpreters understand him? by Peter & Florence Bishop page 34 many of Bruckner’s choral works still remain to be recorded, so it’s gratifying to see that Elisabeth Maier will be performing How I discovered Bruckner lieder by Bruckner at St. Florian in August as part of the by Gert Van Gelder page 35 BrucknerTage festival - (see back cover). In recent times there has always been some Bruckner Letters from Wolgang Winkler, performed at and broadcast from The BBC Proms, and this year Juan I Cahis, Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs, Dermot Gault page 36 will be no exception, but if you survey the orchestral season beyond The Proms, readers in the UK enter lean times. There’s Concert Listings page 42 a 5th and a 9th in Birmingham, Sir Colin Davis and the LSO __________________________ promise us the 4th and the 6th at the Barbican - and that’s it. It Copyright in all pieces remains with the is sad indeed there will be no opportunity at all in the author. Silhouette by Otto Böhler. foreseeable future to hear, and perhaps celebrate, how Bruckner Ansfelden Bruckner bust on page 29 by will sound in the newly refurbished Royal Festival Hall on the Michael Felmingham. South Bank with its reputedly much improved acoustic. It Views expressed by contributors to The Bruckner Journal are not necessarily those would have been ideal music with which to put it to the test. KW of the editors. 2 TEN YEARS OF THE BRUCKNER JOURNAL We hope at some time during the coming year to produce a simple index of the contents of all past issues of The Bruckner Journal. But until then, for the benefit of readers looking for specific items and for those interested in back copies, here is a list compiled by Raymond Cox of the main articles in each issue. 1997 Vol.1/1 Constantin Floros: Bruckner Propositions (1) Vol.1/2 " " " " (2) 2003 Vol.1/3 “ “ “ “ (3) Vol.7/1 Peter Palmer: Some early composer- Alan George: Bruckner's String Quintet conductors of Bruckner Henry Raynor: An Approach to Anton 1998 Bruckner Vol.2/1 Derek Scott: Lux in Tenebris (1) Vol.7/2 Jacques Roelands: The Finale of Vol.2/2 " " " " " (2) Bruckner's Ninth Vol.2/3 " " " " " (3) Vol.7/3 Wilhelm Furtwängler: Speech (1939) to Nigel Simeone: Lovro von Matacic the German Bruckner Society 1999 2004 Vol.3/1 Derek Scott:Lux in Tenebris (end) Vol.8/1 Ken Ward: Bruckner and Death Joseph Braunstein interview Crawford Howie: Bruckner String Quintet Otto Biba: Bruckner's Dedications Vol.8/2 Paul Coones: Bruckner in amateur Vol.3/2 Crawford Howie: Bruckner Letters performance Joseph Braunstein interview (end) Vol.8/3 Dermot Gault: Bruckner's Eighth: The Mark Audus: Jascha Horenstien 1890 Version Vol.3/3 Crawford Howie: Bruckner Letters (2) Angela Pachovsky: Bruckner's Songs 2005 Vol.9/1 William Carragan: Bruckner's Golden 2000 Arches Vol.4/1 (various): Franz Schalk & Bruckner's Fifth Vol.9/2 Nicola Samale & Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs: Elisabeth Maier: Ignaz Dorn Bruckner's Ninth Finale Vol.4/2 Andrea Harrandt: The Late Letters Vol.9/3 Ian Beresford Gleaves: Bruckner, God Mark Kluge: The Royale Third and Light Vol/4/3 Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs: Bruckner's Ninth Paul Hawkshaw: A report on the sources for Bruckner's Eighth Symphony 2001 Vol.5/1 Keith Warsop: Spohr and Bruckner 2006 Vol.5/2 Leon Botstein: Music and Ideology - Vol.10/1 Benjamin Korstvedt: The 1888 Version of Thoughts on Bruckner Bruckner's Fourth Symphony Crawford Howie: Bruckner's Third Dermot Gault: A version of the Adagio for chronology/Mahler's role the Eighth Symphony Vol.5/3 " " " " (conclusion) Vol.10/2 Constantin Floros: Anton Bruckner in a Stanislav Skrowaczewski interview New Perspective David Aldborgh: Austerity and Charm: Peter Jan Marthé on a his completion of Revisions in the 4th and 1st symphonies the Ninth Symphony Jacques Roelands: Doing Justice to 2002 Bruckner Vol.6/1 Dermot Gault: The Third Version of Derek Cooke compares 1887 and 1890 Bruckner's Third Symphony versions of the Eighth Vol.6/2 William Carragan: The "Wagner Vol.10/3 Paul Dawson-Bowling: Thematic and Symphony" on stage Tonal Unity in Bruckner's Eighth Vol.6/3 Mark Kluge: Bruckner in New York: Raymond Rice: Bruckner in the Academy. A 1964-65 Cycle Raymond Cox: Bruckner's Cosmic Musical Background in Relation to the Zodiac SUBSCRIPTIONS & BACK COPIES Subscription & back copies enquiries to Raymond Cox 01384 566383 or by email to [email protected] Subscriptions for 3 issues a calendar year are £10 UK, Europe 15 Euros or £10; Rest of the world $US25 or £12. Subscriptions, cash or cheque, to The Bruckner Journal, 4 Lulworth Close, Halesowen, B63 2UJ, UK. Those readers with Internet access may like to visit the web-site at www.brucknerjournal.co.uk. Subscriptions can be paid there using credit or debit card via the PayPal facility 3 THE BRUCKNER JOURNAL READERS’ CONFERENCE BIRMINGHAM, 20/21 APRIL 2007 About 35 people attended the Bruckner Journal Readers’ Conference, some travelling from USA, Norway, Denmark and other far-away places, and it was certainly a great success. Although the venue at Birmingham could not boast the surrounding parkland and lakes of our previous venue at Nottingham University, the meeting room itself was more than adequate and many of those attending found it easier to get to Birmingham than Beeston. Musical examples were played on a Bose CD player. An innovation was the Friday evening session in which, after an introductory talk by Ken Ward surveying a range of mysteries evoked by or associated with the music of Anton Bruckner, Erling E. Guldbrandsen gave a paper, informed by his personal experience as much as by his academic studies, about Bruckner and mystical experience. He focused his investigation on the opening and the coda of the first movement of the Ninth Symphony. After the evening session many of us met up in a local hotel and discussed matters Brucknerian until the need for sleep overcame us. On Saturday Crawford Howie chaired the conference. Benjamin Korstvedt spoke about Bruckner’s early work on the 4th Symphony, demonstrating how at one stage he loaded the score with considerable imitative contrapuntal orchestration, but later removed it and clarified the texture. William Carragan gave an intriguing presentation, related to the recent première of his revised completion of the Finale of the 9th symphony, illustrated with viewgraphs showing the comparative proportions of elements in Bruckner’s finales, that of the Ninth in particular. Paul Hawkshaw gave an insight into what Bruckner was up to during his years in St. Florian, the music he would have heard and the works and passages from works he painstakingly copied out at that time. Nicholas Attfield introduced us to the ideas and writings of Erich Schwebsch, and to his strange somewhat mystifying ‘analyses’ of Bruckner symphonies. The Conference closed with an open session led by Crawford Howie who discussed the element of mystery in Bruckner’s music with special reference to Bruckner’s sacred choral music. All the papers presented will be published in this and future issues of The Bruckner Journal. The Alternative Bruckner Event The Bruckner Weekend at Chantmarle Manor To have been “Absent Without Leave” from the Journal’s Conference on the 21 April 2007 is a serious matter. Readers will take a dim view of such conduct. What excuse could be offered for such a heinous offence? I accept that it is no defence to the charge but the fact that I was attending elsewhere another Bruckner event, a Bruckner Weekend, may afford a degree of mitigation. The weekend took place in Dorset at Chantmarle Manor.