Anton Bruckner, Symphony No. 5
Tapiola Sinfionetta
Mario Venzago
CPO 777 616-2 (CD)
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Nikolaus Harnoncourt
RCO Live 14106 (Blu Ray)
Staatskapelle Dresden
Christian Thielemann
C Major LC 15762
It would be hard to imagine three
more different performances of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 5 in B Flat Major. With
this recording Mario Venzago brings his iconoclastic cycle to a close,
consciously setting himself against almost every current and past approach to
Bruckner interpretation. Harnoncourt is less conspicuously revolutionary, but
still wedded to a more historically informed performance style. Thielemann, in
contrast, gives us Bruckner in the grand style.
I reviewed Venzago’s recording of
the Eighth Symphony here. I
was unconvinced, but not wholly
negative. I have the same reaction here. As he states in the lengthy essay
explaining his approach, Venzago plays Bruckner much faster than we are
accustomed to. His model is Schbert’s Unfinished, which he thinks has likewise
been excessively slowed down by generations of conductors. He also favors a
relatively small orchestra, with some 30 strings, as was more standard during
Bruckner’s lifetime, and argues that the slower pace we have become used to is
a function of excessively large orchestras. In sum, Venzago sets himself
against the kind of cathedral interpretation so well articulated by Benjamin
Zander in the long interview accompanying his performance of the Fifth (Telarc
80706).
This is by quite some way the
fastest performance of Bruckner’s Fifth ever recorded. It comes in at 60
minutes even. For comparison, the Bruckner Discography shows only a handful of
performances coming in under 70 minutes, with the majority significantly
longer. The first movement speeds by in a blur at 15’55” (nearly 7 minutes
quicker than Thielemann, for example, and 5 minutes quicker than Harnoncourt).
The slow movement takes some getting used to, but the final movements are very
effective, bringing out very clearly Bruckner’s adventurous harmonies. The
Scherzo benefits from the pace, but it’s worth noting that the Scherzo is
longer than the Adagio. One of the claims that Venzago makes for his approach
is that it better allows the counterpoint to emerge. There is some truth in
this, but the overall effect of the final movement is not good. The pace sounds
forced. Venzago seems to have forgotten that Bruckner was an organist.
Whereas the Venzago disc is a
studio recording, the other two performances are both recorded live.
Harnoncourt’s concert is a historic event – his farewell performance after 38
years and 276 concerts with the Concertgebouw. Like Venzago, Harnoncourt aims
to strip away some of the Romantic excesses with which Bruckner has become
encrusted. His style is much less mannered, however, and his personality does
not intrude much into the music. One of Harnoncourt’s trademarks is minimal
vibrato in the strings. As a result he loses some of the grandeur of the slow
movement. But it undeniably yields a clean and crisp sound. This is entirely
appropriate for Harnoncourt, who focuses more on vertical than on horizontal
structure. This is a very polished performance – one that does credit both to
the occasion and to the score.
Thielemann takes a much more
orthodox and weighty approach. The timings tell the story, with the
Staatskapelle Dresden taking 82 minutes, more than 22 minutes longer than
Venzago and nearly 15 longer than Harnoncourt. The principal divergence is in
the slow movement, to which Venzago and Harnoncourt devote less than 13
minutes, while Thielemann takes over 20. Unsurprisingly Thielemann achieves a
weight in the Adagio that neither of the other two can come close to matching. This helps him achieve a much more satisfying
architectural balance across the four movements – Thielemann very much focuses
on horizontal structure. The third movement also achieves a fine balance, with
the contrast between the Scherzo and the Trio well judged.
The Finale is also longer in the
Dresden performance. Here too Thielemann brings the overall structure out very
clearly. There is a tremendous build up at the opening of the movement and the
two fugal passages play their role in a very complex movement, rather than
stealing the show. I certainly found this the most satisfying of the three
performances – helped no doubt by being well filmed in the fine surroundings of
the Semperoper in Dresden.
