Abbado's Bruckner 5 from the 2011 Lucerne Festival

Bruckner, Symphony No. 5

Lucerne Festival Orchestra, conduced by Claudio Abbado

Accentus DVD ACC 20243

This DVD of a live performance from the 2011 Lucerne Festival is truly a gem. Claudio Abbado’s conducting style is minimal, shaping the music with great economy of gesture, but he is clearly in tune with his hand-picked and carefully nurtured summer orchestra and their collective understanding of Bruckner’s complex 5^th symphony is deep indeed.

Abbado presents a highly articulated performance, bringing out the overall architecture with great clarity. The clarity extends, moreover, to the musical texture. Even in the tutti the different voices emerge distinctly – no small feat in the highly contrapuntal last movement, particularly in the coda where key themes and motifs and superimposed upon each other.

There is a real sense of a taut musical argument running through the symphony, with a running dialogs in each movement between the themes and motifs, and between the different voices and instrumental groups. In fact, Abbado brings out a feature of the 5^th symphony that emerges in relatively few performances. In many ways the symphony is an argument of moods – challenge in the fanfares, grandeur in the chorales, intermittent hesitation (in the short woodwind motifs, for example), and lilting dances, all juxtaposed with the extraordinary lyricism that emerges in the Adagio and elsewhere.

The sound quality is very good and the videography brings out the structure of the symphony and the details of the interpretation, rather than detracting from them and breaking the flow (as sometimes occurs). My only minor quibble is the rather breathless program notes. But this is a deeply satisfying DVD, highly recommended.

Celibidache Conducts Bruckner

Bruckner, Symphony No. 6, 7, 8

Sergiu Celibidache

Münchner Philharmoniker
Sony 88691952709-01/2/3 (3 DVD)

Bruckner, Symphony No. 4
Sergiu Celibidache
Münchner Philharmoniker
Sony 88691952709-04 (2 CDs)

This handsome set contains 3 DVDs of live TV broadcasts (2 from Suntory Hall in Tokyo and 1 from the Philharmonie am Gasteig), together with a CD recording of a concert at the Grosser Saal des Musikvereins. The DVDs are of the 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th symphonies, and have previously been released on VHS and Laserdisc. The performance of the 4^th on CD is a new addition to the catalog. The sound quality is good in all four symphonies. The picture on the DVDs leaves something to be desired, but it is hard to imagine that anybody will be buying this set for the quality of the picture.

These recordings are from late in Celibidache’s career, recorded between 1989 and 1991 (he died in 1996 at the age of 84). They are representative of the expansive and mystical approach to Bruckner that he developed during his tenure with the Munich Philharmonic. The timings tell the tale. The 4^th, for example, is over 1 hour 20 minutes long, compared say with 63 minutes for Haitink’s Philips recording with the Concertgebouw. No major conductor whom I can find has recorded a 4^th that is less than 10 minutes shorter than this one. Interestingly, the expansiveness is not uniform. The major stretch occurs in the finale (30”13’ for Celi, vs. 19”49’ for Haitink).
 

The DVDs reveal a compelling podium presence, able to extract gradations of sound with tiny movements of the baton. The Munich Philharmonic is incredibly responsive, and clearly well attuned to their principal conductor’s way with Bruckner. Celibidache conducts from memory and appears to be in a state of mystical communion with the music. He is visibly pained at how quickly the applause begins at the end of the 8^th.

Celibidache’s late style has rapturous proponents and violent detractors. This is exactly to be expected, given the extreme nature of his interpretation. And in a sense both groups are correct. It is quite right that nobody conducts Bruckner like Celibidache, and that his interpretation opens up aspects of each symphony that are either hidden or backgrounded with other conductors. The speed at which he moves allows the complex layers of Bruckner’s orchestration to emerge in all their richness, and Celibidache’s ability to shape a melodic contour is really quite extraordinary.

At the same time, however, there are definite losses. At times the musical line is so elongated that momentum is almost lost and it becomes hard to see the wood for the (admittedly wonderful) trees. It is also difficult for Celibidache to bring out some of the rhythmic and tempo contrasts that give structure to Bruckner’s symphonies. The Scherzo in the 8^th, for example, lacks the bite and edge that most conductors give it (and that, in my view, it needs to have for the symphony to work). And, more generally, one of the reasons Bruckner’s Adagios are so powerful is that they open up a sense of musical space not present in the other movements. This differentiation can be lost in Celibidache’s interpretations.

To my ear the 8^th is the least successful of these concerts, precisely because of this loss of contrast and tension in the outer movements (the Adagio, as might be expected, is very powerful indeed). I had similar problems with the 4^th, at least until the last movement. The 7^th lends itself more to Celibidache’s ultra-measured approach, but the most successful performance is definitely the 6^th.

Acoustically and visually this set is a testament to the vision of a great Bruckner conductor. These will never be reference recordings, but I think that every Brucknerian will want to listen to these recordings, and many will treasure them.

 

Paul Lewis and Schubert

Listening last night to Paul Lewis's new recording of Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy, the D 935 Impromptus, Moments Musicaux, and the D 845 Sonata made me think how difficult it must be to be a Schubert pianist.

To get the measure of Schubert one needs power (think Sviatoslav Richter), poetry (think Radu Lupu), and intellectual command (think Alfred Brendel). That's a tough mission, but Lewis acquits himself more than well. 

If you haven't already bought the CD (available here), you may be persuaded by this performance of the second D 935 Impromptu.

 

Stuttgart Ring

Some long journeys over the holiday period allowed me finally to catch up with the 2002/2003 Ring Cycle from the Staatsoper Stuttgart, released on DVD by EuroArts in 2004.

This was, to put it mildly a controversial production. Each opera had a different cast and different director, with the only continuity being the Staatsorchester Stuttgart under the baton of Lothar Zagrosek. Many have weighed in on the pros and cons of this attempt "to deconstruct the totalizing narrative of the Ring cycle", as one might put it. There is an insightful article by Andrew Moravscik here (originally published in Opera Quarterly in 2010), and a representative holding up of hands in horror here.

For my money the stagings were by and large thought-provoking. The test of a production is whether it reveals aspects of the drama that one hadn't previously seen and each of the four directors managed to pull the veil back on occasion. There was really only one act that was utterly devoid of merit or point - the first act of Peter Konwitschny's Die Götterdämmerung, featuring an utterly preposterous fur-clothed Siegfried gamboling around with a hobby-horse and the expression of a smirking village idiot before putting on Brunnhilde's amply proportioned feminine breastplate. The second and third acts of that same production showed real imagination, however, as did much of the other three productions. Many familar Wagnerian clichés showed up - the Nazi baby ward with a crib for each Valkyrie, the gods as gangsters, the post-industrial landscapes, barbed wire prison camps, and so on. But each production had a distinctive vision and the singers did a good job of framing their parts accordingly.

One of the strengths of the Stuttgart Ring is that it features an unusual amount of acting (as opposed to standing and singing). Memorable scenes include the last part of Brunnhilde and Siegfried's great duet, as they alternately fight over and swirl a sheet on their soon-to-be marriage bed, and the long dialog between Alberich and Hagen which begins with Hagen asleep and Alberich awake and appears to end with the roles reversed (quis custodiet custodies, I suppose). Unfortunately, some scenes are memorable for all the wrong reasons, and I would very much like to be able to forget Wotan besporting himself with what appear to be nude Grecian garden gnomes in the second act of Siegfried.

An obvious problem with having each role sung by different singers in each opera is that comparisons are easily made. The Wotans in Die Walküre and Siegfried (Jan-Hendrik Rootering and Wolfgang Schöne respectively) are completely overshadowed by Wolfgang Probst singing the same role in Das Rheingold, and Luana DeVol steals the show as Brunnhilde in Die Götterdämmerung (with a wonderfully sung and acted immolation scene). The fact of the matter, though, is that the three principal characters are disappointing, with the two exceptions just noted. Neither Jon Frederic West not Albert Bonnema makes much of a mark as Siegfried. West is a shouter, while Bonnema is erratic when he tries to project (if only they could somehow be combined!). The real highlights are in the more secondary roles. Robert Gambill and Angela Denoke are very moving as the Walsung twins in Die Walküre, and Heinz Göhrig (Mime) and Björn Waag (Alberich) sing and act very effectively in Siegfried. 

I have to say that I got much more out of the Stuttgart Ring than I expected. The singing is certainly not up to par overall, but Lothar Zagrosek's conducting is solid and at times inspiring. The conceptual approach is worth engaging with and frequently sheds genuine light on the drama. It's unlikely that I'll want to sit through it in its entirety again, but there are powerful acts that it would good to revisit.

I have more long flights later in the week. This time I think I'll take the 1957 Rudolf Kempe Ring from Covent Garden.     

Best Bruckner recordings - really?

Plenty to chew on in the Gramophone magazine's "guide to the best Bruckner recordings". Furtwangler, Knappersbusch, and Celibidache enthusiasts need not apply! Nor Keilberth or Walter fans. Georg Tintner seems at a quick count to be the most frequently picked conductor. There seems to be a recency effect at work here.

Sanderling's Bruckner 3 from Newcastle (1978)

Anton Bruckner, Symphony No. 3

BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra

Kurt Sanderling

ICA Classics, ICAC 5005. Live performance from City Hall, Newcastle upon Tyne, 21 April 1978.

The 3^rd Symphony is perhaps the most flawed and certainly the most revised of Bruckner’s symphonies (there are between 3 and 6 versions, depending on how you count). The original 1873 version, disastrously received at its first performance in 1877, was not published until Nowak’s 1977 edition, which based on Wagner’s fair copy of the score that had been dedicated to him. There has been more of a vogue recently for performing this original version (see, e.g., Norrington’s recording, which I reviewed here), but Kurt Sanderling here follows the majority in performing the 1889 revision, edited by Nowak in 1959.

Robert Simpson is not an enthusiast for the 3^rd Symphony, which he describes in his wonderful book The Essence of Bruckner as “the weakest of Bruckner’s numbered symphonies”. Simpson’s objections are primarily structural, and it is true that performances of the 3^rd typically fail to bring out a compelling architecture. 

It is to Sanderling’s credit, though, that this performance does communicate a musical inner logic. In the first movement Sanderling’s steady tempi are key, as his disinclination to luxuriate in Bruckner’s more bombastic moments. The Adagio has more weight, but remains in balance with the first movement. Sanderling and the BBC  Northern Symphony (soon to be renamed the BBC Philharmonic) bring out the lyrical depths of the movement, with steady tempi once again. The juxtaposition of the Scherzo and the Trio is very effective, and sets things up nicely for the split personality of the finale, with a funereal chorale and a sprightly polka running through it (and combined in the famous “double theme”).

All in all this is a fine performance, which makes a good case for the 1889 revision, despite the by and large justified criticisms of Simpson and others. Sanderling is a fine Brucknerian (see here for a review of his December 1999 Stuttgart 7^th). It is unfortunate that the included 10 minute interview by Piers Burton-Page does not touch upon Bruckner. The exchange is interesting nonetheless. If there is a fault, it is in the rather dry acoustics of the Newcastle City Hall, but the ear should soon adjust. Recommended.

Wand and Tennstedt Bruckner DVDs from ICA

Bruckner, Symphony No. 5

BBC Symphony Orchestra, conduced by Günter Wand

ICA Classics DVD ICAD 5049

Bruckner, Symphony No. 7

Boston Symphony Orchestra, conduced by Klaus Tennstedt

ICA Classics DVD ICAD 5066

ICA Classics is the in-house label of the International Classical Artists artist management agency. It puts out historical recordings in its Legacy series, as well as live recordings of its own artists in its Live series. The Legacy series has four Bruckner DVD recordings – in addition to the two reviewed here, the catalog features Bruckner’s 8^th, played by the Boston Symphony under William Steinberg and the 7^th, played by Charles Munch, also with the Boston Symphony. (Click here for my review of the Steinberg recording.) The Wand 5^th was recorded live at the Proms in September 1990, when Wand was a sprightly 78, while the Tennstedt 7^th was captured in November 1977, relatively early in Tennstedt’s career outside East Germany (he had defected only in 1971).

The Günter Wand DVD has a bonus interview with the conductor – Michael Berkeley is the interviewer (although in 2’54” there is not much time for him to shape the conversation!). Wand says some very insightful things about Bruckner, and it is definitely worth watching the interview before listening to the performance. One thing Wand emphasizes is the importance of steady tempi in Bruckner – as he puts it, “rubato can make the whole edifice collapse”. 

 The 5^th Symphony, Bruckner’s most austere work, is very well suited to Wand’s architectural approach, particularly in the last movement where pride of place is taken by a fugue and then a magnificent double fugue.  Wand delivers a very compelling performance. His conducting is light on gesture and emphasis, but communicates a clear vision of the 5^th symphony’s complex structure. The final coda rightfully brought the house down.

Tennstedt has a very different conducting style to Wand. He is much more prone to rubato and variable tempi. Some passages sound as slow as I can remember hearing them. The comparison between Wand and Tennstedt is very much between Wand’s structural conception and Tennstedt’s emphasis on shaping the individual phrase – wood vs. trees, one might put it, a little unkindly. Of the four movements, the Adagio emerged most clearly in Tennstedt’s hands. The structure was brought out, while there was wonderful attention to sonic detail. The coda was played almost like a piece of chamber music. Overall, however, the performance does not convince.

The sound in the Wand recording is good, while the Tennstedt recording leaves something to be desired (with the strings sounding a little subdued, although the brass emerges clearly). Brucknerians will certainly want to add the Wand to their ever-expanding Wand discography. The Tennstedt is for enthusiasts only, however.