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Bruckner ~ journal Issued three times a year and sold by subscription Editorial and advertising: telephone 0115 928 8300 2 Rlvergreen Close, Beeston, GB-Nottlngham NG9 3ES Subscriptions and mailing' telephone 013B4 566 383 4 Lulworth Close, Halesowen, West Midlands B63 2UJ VOLUME FIVE, IUIUIER OIIE, IWICH 2001 Editor: Peter Palmer Managing Editor: Raymond Cox Associate Editor: Crawford Howle In This Issue BRUCIIER REVIEWED page lie ..... asked I"OCIIItly for .... I'l!Clillielied 'best buys" of Cancerts 2 8nJCIcner recanllngs. Call It fence-slttlng If you llke, but ..,hiijS thfs ,ICU"nIl Is ....lly the lAST place for SIdI tips. CcIIIpact Discs 6 Qr review pages, it Is hoped, will Il101yS ~ the Feedback 13 COIlIlex1~ of the task of assessing IDs. The large •• aa •••••••••••••••••• a>llectlons coned by IUIB"OUS reedeI s _ to ccnf1nn the Conference PreYlew 16 dlfflall~ - and possibly the II1Ifes1rob111~ - of nIIIIIng an •••••••••••••••••••••• out-anII-oIt first choice ftr each of 81'uc1cner's oats • Spohr lnel Bruckner AeYlewlng Involves both abjectlve and $lbJectlve flCta"s; It by Keith Warsop 18 Is not just a matter of giving IIIU'ks out of ten. An experienced critic can be of CCI1Sldereble service s1nply by Bructner-than II aJIIIUIlcatlng In IQ"ds the salient feettres of I nuslcal by David Grlegel perfomnce. And If they are candid, revI..... will 3 RamOn Khalona 22 regularly signal the .., sa ..l el_ that Is bound up with lfnz FestIval any stated value-judgelBlt. by Franz Zam..al 27 To 111ustnte the oforesald COIlIlex1~ of CD reviewing, Cal.nellr 32 CCI1Slder the recanllngs of the ~ Singers. Ifoen their box set of 8I'ucIcner Masses ... ISSUI!d, I offered It to I partiall ... rev1aoer In the alnfldent expectatIon that he Contrlbutas: the next cq>y ....ld be dell!#ed with It. To or srprf.. he dImed It dI!edllne Is 15 May 2001. with faInt praIse. In the preserlt jCU"nal, I have taken the IIsterIll other than letters q>prtIrof~ to lilt a different construct1on upon one of the In typescript, pleese. offending Intel P etatlons. CqJyr!!# In III IIBterIll Is retained by the authr/s. lie have discussed balloting you for ycu" """ h!tOlueodations, but all that It ....ld tell us ftr certain Is the relative Translations by B I L ItIs1c I avallablll~ of the pbl1shed recanllngs. And can one In John A. Phillips (Reb van der justice Ignore that huge Japanese IIIII'ket Into WoIch few Hllst) and Peter Palner West.lle'S have delved? For the tl... being, then, III! are (Frenz Zareza1). caotent to pass on a sea>nd selection fran California of Silhouette by Otto BOhler. nerltorIous (and SCIII!I:IOI!S arIous) 8I'ucIcner recanllngs old am I'II!W. P.P. r-----------------~~====~~ 2 r. D••• • OU~••oQth Symp~Oqy Orc~estr. and CfiQr~s wfth Cl.1~ R (so~reno), Sally ~ruce-P.yne (mezzo-soprano. 8.,n ~but. (~.nor) and Matthew Best (ba.s). conducted 'J out Pool, Arts Centre, Wednesday 27 Septeoblr 2000 3 Paul Daniel, .usic director of English National Opera, stepped in for Christoph Eschenbach as conductor of Bruckner1s Sixth Sy.phony with the LPO at the Royal Festival Hall, London, on Thursday 9 Nove.ber. Born in 1958, Daniel studied conducting with Adrian Boult and Edward Downes in England and with Franco Ferrara in Italy. RARELY DOES one find a fully THIS WAS an impressive satisfying Bruckner 6. This has performance by the LPO. Paul been achieved on disc by Inbal and Solti (more or less), Blomstedt and Daniel took it briskly, but the Celibidache (very much more), and rhythms were consistently well Chailly (first movement only). articulated and the orchestral Klemperer, though one of my heroes, sound was well balanced, so that misses out here. As I see it, the we heard every strand. The work Sixth is the classical work in seemed very cogent, very tight, Bruckner's symphonic canon. held together with consummate Transitions and tempo relations musical logic. are crucial to building each What we gained in coherence, movement's edifice. The however, we lost in expression. expression, while deeply felt, When the main theme of the first needs the tartness that comes of movement was inverted to become astutely balancing Bruckner's a soaring ecstatic string instrumental lines. Paul Daniel melody, it was not given time to delivered as fine a performance of sing. The kaleidoscopic Bruckner in A major as I've heard. unfolding of heavenly landscapes in the first-movement coda was too With the London Philharmonic in fast for us to fully acknowledge splendid form, Daniel was alert to the scenery around us. The the symphony's chamber-musical weeping oboe solo of the Adagio scoring--the way that small was a touch prosaic, and the details blend and balance. Having flowing pace of the movement launched the morse-code idea at a belied the tragedy of the virtually ideal tempo, he appreciated Bruckner's long funeral march. But the build-up phrases, and the exposition's three to the climax, in which the oboe subjects emerged as an entity. melody rings out on horns, was Daniel was the epitome of profoundly moving. Brucknerian perspective in seeing The scherzo and trio were each movement as a whole. The fantastic in every sense, and secret was his masterly handling of the refusal to linger paid off in transitions, as in the 'funeral the finale. Critics often regard march' of the Adagio. In an this movement as flawed. But, as atmosphere pregnant with Richard Osborne said (quoting anticipation, Daniel unfurled the Confucius), the way out is wondrous melody 'in tempo'; with through the door. Paul Daniel crisp timpani in attendance, the headed straight through that door music's heartache was fully stated. without mulling over the pattern on the wallpaper, and it all made The scherzo--vital, muscular, even wonderful sense. We had had laid a tad humorous--proved an before us a well constructed, admirable foil to the enigmatic supremely beautiful architecture, trio. The finale, purposeful and and the vitality of it sent us bold, was enthralling. home much invigorated. COLIN ANDERSON KEN WARD -1M 4 Bruckner: Symphony No.9 (with Finale) Russian National Orchestra conducted by Robert Bachmann Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Moscow, Monday 6 November 2000 IN FRONT OF 1,500 people in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the Russian National Orchestra under Robert Bachmann played Bruckner's Ninth Symphony for the first time in a new edition by Benjamin Gunnar Cohrs which has just been published in Vienna as part of the Critical Edition. The concert also marked the Russian premiere of the performing version, by Samale-Phillips-Cohrs-Mazzuca, of the symphony's incomplete Finale. This is the completion which has proved to be the most soundly based philologically, and the concert caused a considerable sensation in Moscow. The orchestral layout was a surprise. In contrast to the widespread American placement, the violins sat left and right on the platform, the violas, horns, Wagner tubas and timpani on the left, the woodwind in the middle, the tuba, trombones, trumpets, cellos and double basses on the right. Because of this, many problems of orchestral balance solved themselves. If at times the sound lacked ampleness in depth, this may be ascribed to the hall, with its high, bare-stone ceiling over the stage. Moreover a tiered platform appears to be unusual in Russia, so that the sound tends to be thrown against the ceiling rather than into the hall. The symphony began with a feeling of great peace, out of which an ever stronger sense of agitation could develop towards the end of the first movement. As a result, many almost hysterical episodes of this 'near to death' music became that much more vivid. The Scherzo unfolded in a measured tempo, taking on the weight of a demonic dance of death, an excellent timpanist contributing to the effect. The Adagio proceeded in a strict but pleasantly flowing tempo. The orchestra's relative unfamiliarity with Bruckner was a hidden asset, for the sentimental, dragging opening to the Adagio heard from some Western orchestras was absent here. Bachmann brought out the part-writing clearly without letting the overall sound be thrown into relief in the process. Tempi were chosen in such a way that connections between the themes became clearly audible. In this manner the Finale, completed by foreign hands, not only fitted imperceptibly into the whole but became the true climax of the symphony. In brisk tempo, and with an unsurpassable sense of drama, the dotted rhythms of the first two themes and the broadly flowing triplets of the moving chorale theme fought out the final battle between life and death. With the return of the first movement's principal theme, Bachmann found the way back to its initial peace. The coda (largely drafted by Bruckner) thereby unfolded in majestic breadth. In the final, radiant 0 major measures the conductor achieved such a culmination in sound that the symphony appeared to end in an act of self-realisation. Prior to the symphony, Benjamin Gunnar Cohrs made his international debut as a conductor in Mozart's Piano Concerto No.8 in C (K.246). The Moscow public has scarcely been accustomed to strings playing almost without vibrato, and with a speech-like phrasing and articulation. The work took on a sculptural quality and was constantly light and graceful. The fine young pianist Alexander Gindin played Mozart's own realisation of the figured bass in the tuttis. ROB VAN DER HILST (Utrecht) 5 Symphony No. 9 BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Walter Weller Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, Saturday 16 December THIS PERFORMANCE of Bruckner's Ninth provided an excellent foil to Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.1, in C major.

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