Bruckner's Abbey

[LKB]

Led astray again by Mr. Google!  The performance came up under a "Bruckner Symphony 5 Marching Band" search!

Here is an example of The Crowd "Singing" one of the main themes!

Apparently a rock-'n'-roll band used (drafted) the theme for one of their songs, and a band director picked it up and ran with it.  At this game, the crowd was LOUD!

I don't think I'd trust Google or Siri or any other 'bot with anything classical. But I'm old and cranky, and spend my weekends muttering about " young people these days " while evicting kids from my lawn...

[Cato]

I don't think I'd trust Google or Siri or any other 'bot with anything classical. But I'm old and cranky, and spend my weekends muttering about " young people these days " while evicting kids from my lawn...

Dude, you are in the club!   

Yes, I should have listened to the link completely, rather than trusting "Google" or "YouTube."

Yes again, to disliking "'bots" and "apps" etc.

To paraphrase a line from an infamous play, "Whenever I hear the word 'app,' I want to reach for my revolver!"   

[Atriod]

No 0 was written before no 1. Both are fully mature 'early' Bruckner works. There's nothing to apologize for (think Beethoven 1-3, Schumann 1, Brahms 1). For no 0 the Marriner/Stuttgart is still my go to rec, because of its youthful energy and natural flow.

I'll reject all apologies for Brahms first symphony! This Skrowaczewski performance was quite special, I liked it more than the one with Saarbrucken. In the one with Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra he keeps it moving but brings out the sturm and drang when called for.  This is a performance if I heard blind with no prior knowledge of who composed it I think would be able to name as Bruckner.

[André]

As a discussion point; how important should a cathedral-like space be in performing Bruckner?  I can see the interest/novelty of hearing a concert in St Florian etc (but interesting how little of that acoustic dominates for example the Boulez No.8 ) but my feeling is that this is a physical parallel to the move from flowing and fluid Bruckner - I like the Rogner performances a lot for example - towards these massive 'spiritual' events which the cathedral space literally echoes.  Yes of course Bruckner was an organist and his musical palette is coloured by the organ but is there any primary source documentary evidence that he wanted his music heard/performed in such an environment or was he trying to transfer a 'cathedral in sound' to the concert hall?  The only Bruckner cycle I owned which I sold was the Paternoster where for me the cavernous acoustic was the last straw in a series averagely played averagely interpreted recordings.

I've failed to derive much enjoyment from the Paternostro and Schaller sets, both recorded in big, reverberant (cavernous) acoustics. But Rémy Ballot's performances recorded in St-Florian show how it can/should be done. I'm listening to them in order (0-6 so far) and can report that the match between phrasing and the sonoristic aspects of the venue is ideal: timings suggest extremely slow accounts, but they are mobile, charged, even emotional performances. Musical phrases are superbly moulded by the conductor, enthusiastically played by the fine orchestra and perfectly timed to fill the venue and spring back (Paternostro paused all the time and I felt Schaller was more in awe of the location than the music). Also, while his timings are celibidachian, Ballot never sounds like he's giving a musical Sermount on the Mount of Olives. A convincing answer to the conundrum Bruckner-the-church-organist vs modern-symphony-hall-concerts.

[Cato]

I've failed to derive much enjoyment from the Paternostro and Schaller sets, both recorded in big, reverberant (cavernous) acoustics. But Rémy Ballot's performances recorded in St-Florian show how it can/should be done. I'm listening to them in order (0-6 so far) and can report that the match between phrasing and the sonoristic aspects of the venue is ideal: timings suggest extremely slow accounts, but they are mobile, charged, even emotional performances. Musical phrases are superbly moulded by the conductor, enthusiastically played by the fine orchestra and perfectly timed to fill the venue and spring back (Paternostro paused all the time and I felt Schaller was more in awe of the location than the music). Also, while his timings are celibidachian, Ballot never sounds like he's giving a musical Sermount on the Mount of Olives. A convincing answer to the conundrum Bruckner-the-church-organist vs modern-symphony-hall-concerts.

Thanks for the reviews!  I should listen to those Ballot/St. Florian recordings!

[Symphonic Addict]

Due for release on August 23rd. His String Quartet, Rondo in C minor and Theme with variations in E-flat major and the String Quartet by his pupil Friedrich Klose. At last something different from the symphonies 

[calyptorhynchus]

Just an observation, some people here are talking about Symphonies 0-9 and implying that 0 is earlier than 1. In fact the Symphony No.1 was written in 1866 and 0 in 1869.

[Cato]

Due for release on August 23rd. His String Quartet, Rondo in C minor and Theme with variations in E-flat major and the String Quartet by his pupil Friedrich Klose. At last something different from the symphonies 

Thanks for the information!

I found this about Friedrich Klose's String Quartet:

 

"This composer astonished the world by producing a quartet in 1911 with the dedication "A tribute to His Severity, the German Schoolmaster." Nonetheless, despite this dedication, his quartet does not resemble the dry and pedagogic work that a pedantic music teacher and defender of strict form would consider correct or at least desirable.

It is a big and complicated work requiring experienced ensemble players. The opening movement is broadly designed with an elastic tempo. The second movement begins Adagio non troppo and leads to an inspired Andante.

Next comes an agitated Scherzo with frequent shifts between pizzicato and arco. The trio section is rhythmically interesting. The finale, departs from tradition in that it is mainly written in a slow tempo.

The composer, in the score, quotes four lines from Schiller, "Let thy heart still shine, become they refuge / When the wind of life blows loud and strong / Look for freedom's dwelling but in dreamland / Look for beauty's blossom, but in song."

[Symphonic Addict]

Thanks for the information!

I found this about Friedrich Klose's String Quartet:

Sounds like a promising work. Thanks for the insightful info.

[Cato]

The Bruckner Journal's latest issue is now available:

https://www.brucknerjournal.com/Issues/currentissue

In it there is a review of a Vienna Philharmonic Bruckner-Berg concert, where the Ninth Symphony was played with Berg's Three Pieces for Orchestra "without an intermission."

I found that intriguing: did the conductor (Franz Welser-Möst) use the Berg work as a quasi-Finale?

Well, sort of!

Here is an excerpt of a review different from the one in The Bruckner Journal:

...Only after the final notes of the symphony sounded (i.e. of the Adagio), did (Franz) Welser-Möst's intentions in pairing the Bruckner and Berg become clear. The conductor did not turn to acknowledge the applause, but rather stood still facing the orchestra. The Berg would serve, if not as a substitute for the unfinished fourth movement, as a coda which jettisoned the audience into the future. Which for music was the Second Viennese School, of which Welser-Möst asserts that Berg was perhaps its greatest genius....

...Welser-Möst drew eerie, transparent sound from the orchestra in the second piece ,which Berg entitled "Reigen." The dance-like music which emerged, often described as "demented," would later serve as the starting point of the Inn Scene in Wozzeck. For all of its strangeness, conductor and orchestra played the strains of waltzes and Ländler with a lightness that only added to the sense of disorientation.

In the concluding Marsch, Welser-Möst unleashed the full fury of the orchestra. The emotional intensity of the playing climaxed in terrifying strokes of sound which resounded throughout the hall. As the sound of glockenspiel, celesta, and harp faded in the final measures, one sensed only despair, not the hopes of salvation with which the Bruckner had ended....

 

By Rick Perdian of The New York Classical Review: check out the 3 comments at the end.

https://newyorkclassicalreview.com/2024/03/vienna-philharmonic-explores-seeds-of-weimar-with-bruckner-and-berg/

[Cato]

News from The Cleveland Orchestra about a new Bruckner Symphony #4.

"he Cleveland Orchestra will release a new audio recording of Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 led by Music Director Franz Welser-Möst on August 16 as it prepares to perform the work on tour in Europe later this summer.

The recording will be available worldwide for digital streaming and download in spatial audio on all major platforms. A sample track (III. Scherzo: Bewegt) will be released on July 26.

The release of Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 is just one way The Cleveland Orchestra is commemorating the composer's bicentennial. On August 20, the Orchestra premieres Bruckner's Fourth on its digital streaming platform, Adella, in a new video production featuring an interview with Welser-Möst discussing the work and the composer. "

https://www.broadwayworld.com/cleveland/article/The-Cleveland-Orchestra-to-Celebrate-200th-Anniversary-of-Anton-Bruckners-Birth-with-Symphony-No-4-20240724

[LKB]

News from The Cleveland Orchestra about a new Bruckner Symphony #4.



https://www.broadwayworld.com/cleveland/article/The-Cleveland-Orchestra-to-Celebrate-200th-Anniversary-of-Anton-Bruckners-Birth-with-Symphony-No-4-20240724

I hate having to say this, but I recently viewed the video of a live B4 with the forces above and wasn't very impressed with the playing. Hopefully Cleveland was simply having an off-night, because they were most definitely not living up to their " Big Five " reputation. 

[Cato]

I hate having to say this, but I recently viewed the video of a live B4 with the forces above and wasn't very impressed with the playing. Hopefully Cleveland was simply having an off-night, because they were most definitely not living up to their " Big Five " reputation. 

Oh my!  Well, we shall see what happens with the above!

[Cato]

Recommended by another Bruckner site:


Michael Gielen and the Bruckner Symphony I:

[lordlance]

Recommended by another Bruckner site:


Michael Gielen and the Bruckner Symphony I:

How was it? 

[(poco) Sforzando]

Some years ago I saw Welser-Möst conduct the Cleveland Orchestra in Bruckner 9, and it was ... OK.  I guess.  The orchestra played superbly - the brass particularly - but overall it was just kinda ... nothing.  I mean, it was Bruckner's 9th Symphony, delivered accurately - can't argue with that - but ... but ... 

Next night I saw them deliver the most forgettable Mahler's Resurrection Symphony I've ever heard.  (And I've heard a few. )  Again, you couldn't point at any one thing and say That's what's wrong with it - it was just - nothing.  Even as it was still going on, I found myself thinking What is this piece of music again?  Sounds kinda familiar ... 

Sounds like he's Welser-Least.

[Cato]

Sounds like he's Welser-Least.

That could be! 

WE have not been to one of their concerts yet under his baton.  An acquaintance has said that Welser-Möst was rather bland in his interpretations.

[Conrad Veidt fan]

I love Dr. John McWhorter (Columbia) and his description of the music of Bruckner:  "a dense, grandiloquent crawl"!

[AnotherSpin]

I love Dr. John McWhorter (Columbia) and his description of the music of Bruckner:  "a dense, grandiloquent crawl"!

Who is Dr. John McWhorter and why is his statement relevant?

[Brian]

Who is Dr. John McWhorter and why is his statement relevant?

What does it need to be relevant to? Conrad Veidt Fan is a new member. Welcome CVF!