Furtwängler conducts Bruckner

Furtwängler conducts Bruckner: Symphonies 4-5-6-7-8-9 (Music and Arts CD-1209, 5 CDs)

In many ways Furtwängler is the ideal Bruckner conductor. There is the extraordinary sense of large-scale architecture that made him such a wonderful Wagnerian. Not to mention his ability to penetrate to the emotional depths of Bruckner’s adagios, and to build and sustain momentum as the composer moves slowly, massively, and inexorably to his great climaxes (in, for example, the slow movements of the 7^th and 8^th, and the finale of the 5^th).

All of these qualities are on display in this collection of live recordings, all but 2 from wartime performances. These performances have all been available over the years on various labels with differing levels of sound quality. The transfers here are first-rate and Music and Arts are to be thanked for gathering these materials in a relatively inexpensive set (5 CDs priced as 3, it proclaims on the box). The issue contains a useful leaflet with extracts from John Ardoin’s 1994 book The Furtwängler Sound corrected in some cases by detailed notes from the sound engineer (Aaron Z. Snyder) on the editions Furtwängler used.

All of the symphonies are complete, with the exception of the 6^th, for which the first movement was not preserved. The core of the symphony is the second movement Adagio, surely one of Bruckner’s finest, and Furtwängler’s performance of this movement with the Berlin Philharmonic is one of the highlights of this set. It is hard to believe that 1943 was his first year conducting the symphony.

The Berlin Philharmonic plays 3 of the other 5 symphonies, with the Vienna Philharmonic playing the 4^th and 8^th. I am not a purist about Bruckner versions, but I do have an aversion to the Löwe-Schalk version of the 4^th (which Furtwängler played in the Stuttgart concert recorded here). Debates about whether or not it was officially sanctioned by Bruckner seem to me to be beside the point. It just doesn’t sound right. Can I be the only person who has got up to answer the doorbell on hearing the extraneous percussion in the opening movement?

The 8^th is played in a modified version of the Haas edition. Furtwängler’s modifications do not intrude and the performance as a whole is magnificent, with the first 3 movements all building up to the Archimedean climax of the Adagio, whose energy is slowly dissolved in the coda. Furtwängler carries Bruckner’s greatest and most complex finale with a sure grasp of both journey and destination.

Another highlight is an incandescent recording (from October 1942) of the 5^th. Furtwängler takes this symphony, one of Bruckner’s most forbidding and structurally complex, at a phenomenal pace and white-hot levels of intensity. I know of no other performance that maintains a comparable momentum through the fugues in the finale.

The most disappointing performance here (leaving aside the 4^th) is the April 1951 Cairo 7^th . But disappointment is a relative concept when it comes to Furtwängler’s Bruckner performances. It would probably be better to describe it as the least spell-binding performance in this indispensable testament to the magical combination of Furtwängler and Bruckner.

Here at last! A fine first edition of Robert Simpson's book on Bruckner.

Bruckner on period instruments?

Philippe Herreweghe's Harmonia Mundi recordings of Bruckner's 4th, 5th, and 7th symphonies with the Orchestre des Champs Elysées have met a mixed reception. Some reviewers have been downright hostile - e.g. this review of the 4th by David Hurwitz (whose book on Mahler, by the way, I greatly appreciate). After listening to all 3 recordings over the last few days I have a much more positive response. There are real benefits from listening to Bruckner's symphonies with a smaller orchestra - as Herreweghe points out in the booklet accompanying the 7th, the balance of his forces is pretty close to that of the Leipzig Gewandhaus in the 1880s. And the use of period instruments and gut strings adds new timbres and sonorities. He is not a purist about editions, but does leave out the cymbal clash in the Adagio on the 7th (which makes good sense in the context of his overall approach – although including it works well for many other conductors).

The real strengths of Herreweghe's approach are, first, how the smaller orchestra allows the finer details of Bruckner's orchestration to emerge and, second, his grasp of the verticality of Bruckner's scores. On this second point, and as one might expect from a conductor so steeped in Bach, Herreweghe does wonderful job with the heavily contrapuntal 5th (particularly the fugue and double fugue in the final movement). He typically adopts fairly constant tempi. This generally works well, although the slow movement of the 5th has its longeurs and the overall architecture of some of the longer movements occasionally gets blurred.

Herreweghe's Bruckner is much more the religious symphonist than the Romantic Wagner enthusiast. There is much to be learnt from listening to him in this light.

The most recent of these recordings was 2009. It's about time for an 8th and a 9th. And, for that matter, why not a 6th and a 3rd?

Download 'The Bruckner Problem Simplified'

I was pleased to find Deryck Cooke's famous 1975 essay 'The Bruckner Problem Simplified' downloadable here (on John Berky's excellent site). Some of the claims are controversial, as Berky notes, but it's hard to imagine a more useful overview of the different versions. Berky's online discography categorizes available recordings by version. Cooke explains what the differences amount to. The rest of us can then argue about which one is better.

Richard Wagner, Parsifal (Hänssler Profil PH09009)

 This interesting but uneven recording dates from 26 March 1954. At the time Ferdinand Leitner was the general music director for the Württemberg State Opera in Stuttgart. Stuttgart was so highly regarded for Wagner productions in the 1950’s  (with Wieland Wagner a regular visitor) that it became known as the “Winter Bayreuth” , and the company made guest performances of Wagner in England, France, and Italy (including a complete Ring at the Florence May Festival in 1957). The present recording is the record of a guest performance at the Palais Garnier in Paris, with a representative set of Stuttgart soloists and the Stuttgart choir, accompanied by the Orchestre de l’Opéra de Paris. (Go here to listen to extracts from this recording.)

 

The cast of principals is extremely strong, particularly Wolfgang Windgassen as Parsifal and Martha Mödl as Kundry (both sang the same roles at Bayreuth that year under Hans Knappersbusch). Gustav Neidlinger makes an uncharacteristic appearance as Amfortas, while Gurnemanz is sung by the somewhat less known Otto von Ruhr.

The highlights of this set are primarily vocal. Windgassen is a magisterial Parsifal in Act III, and suitably anguished in Act I. Mödl is magnificent as Kundry. The long duet in Act II is required listening for all Wagner-lovers. Neidlinger’s Amfortas has more than curiosity value, but he does not seem to have entirely internalized the role. The anguish works well, but the self-laceration less so. Gurnemanz is well sung, although plainly some levels below Hans Hotter, the dominant Gurnemanz of the time. Von Ruhr’s Act III duet with Parsifal is finely sung, and somewhat more effective than their Act I encounter.

I have few complaints about the conducting. Leitner’s interpretation is well-paced and architecturally sound. The preludes and orchestral section reveal his ability to bring out the color and range of Wagner’s orchestration. Sadly, though, the orchestra is up against a restless and tubercular audience, silenced only by wonderful singing in the second half of Act II – at least until the final bars, when an early clapper provokes an atmosphere-destroying round of sshhes. Stage noises interfere with the climaxes of the other two acts, with a particularly loud crash at the end of Act III.  Anybody contemplating purchasing this set will of course be used to noisy audiences and on-stage crashes. But here it does seem to be worse than usual and severely detracts from the enjoyment of some fine singing and conducting.

In sum, this was probably an excellent performance, and the quality of the transfer is good, but there are too many extraneous sounds for it to be recommended as a performance, rather than as a testament to some very fine individual interpretations.