The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Volume 5 Bruckner Orchestral Works

Performer: Vienna Philharmonic Composer: Bruckner CD INFO: Andante 4070 (4 CDs) Reviewer: John L. Holubiak       ON THIS RECORDING: Disc 1: Symphony No. 7, Karl Böhm conducting, September 26, 1976, 64:41 Disc 2, 3: Symphony No. 8, Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting, April 10 or 24, 1954, 81:01 Disc 4: Symphony No. 9, Herbert von Karajan conducting, May 8, 1978, 57:59 Includes an essay Epic Visions and Last Things: Furtwängler, Böhm and Karajan in Bruckner’s Final Three Symphonies by Richard Osborne

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REVIEW:
According to John Berky’s online Bruckner Symphony Versions Discography, this release marks the first CD release of the Karajan, the first stereo release of the Böhm, and the fourth of the Furtwängler (Berky gives the performance date as the 10th, Andante the 24th). This is the first time I have heard these performances

The 7th begins strikingly. Phrasing is natural, expansive, the pace relaxed, details are clearly articulated. Böhm coaxes a warm sonority from the orchestra, with rich sound from the strings. This expansiveness is contrasted at times with passages of marked urgency. Böhm weaves the contrasts of the movement together with great skill. Every phrase is interesting and those smaller pieces make up a striking whole. Combined with Böhm’s characteristic ear for detail and balance, the performance of this movement is as beautiful as any I’ve heard.

The second movement continues in this vein, but the slow tempo and dark orchestral sonorities give the movement as a whole a sense of introspection and at times intimacy. This latter quality is especially evident in the closing passages, which in Böhm’s hands sound like late Mahler (I wonder if there are any broadcasts of him conducting the Ninth or Das Lied von der Erde).

After the impact and bar to bar intensity of the first two movements, the Scherzo and Finale seem almost anti-climactic. Böhm’s tempi are fleet and the orchestral sonorities are light. The movements pass by very quickly and lack the memorable qualities heard earlier. Still, this is a satisfying reading, one that I will return to again. The recorded sound is very good, with a slight hint of limiting in the climaxes. Detail emerges effortlessly and there is a nice sense of space around the orchestra.

The 8th Symphony is my favorite of Bruckner’s symphonies. The only other performance of Bruckner’s music by Furtwängler I’d heard is the one of the 8th available on Music & Arts, and I didn’t like it. I found it loud and aggressive without compensating warmth or nobility. It also suffered in places from overload distortion. This newly issued performance is conceptually different from that earlier one and is much more to my liking. The recorded sound is also much improved, with only a slight fuzz around the brasses in climaxes.
The first movement is taken expansively, the climaxes intense and dramatic. Tympani are forceful and brasses are loud, but the shaping of the climaxes has better focus and control than the earlier recording. The tone is one of cragginess and brazen toughness, and in overall outline is similar to later recordings of Szell and Giulini, the former appears to now be out-of-print, at least in the U.S. The Scherzo is fleet, much like Van Beinum’s. This makes for an exciting movement, but lost is the rich harmonic color of Bruckner’s orchestration, so beautifully revealed by Szell at the slower tempo he takes.

The heart of this performance is in the Adagio. Furtwängler shapes the movement masterfully, integrating varied tempi and dynamics. These are some of Furtwängler’s defining characteristics as an interpreter and they fit this music very well. Concentration is high throughout the movement and it never loses interest.

It is in the Finale where I find this performance lets down. The opening tempo feels subjectively too slow. At several other points in the movement Furtwängler’s shifts in tempo sound abrupt and mannered. The closing pages are very exciting and the work blazes to its conclusion. While the mannerisms won’t prevent me from returning to this performance, I did find them annoying.

Turning to the Karajan performance, I am puzzled why it was included in this set. The producers must have thought this an exceptional performance. My first impression from looking at the total timing was that this might be a fiery performance. But with the exception of the scherzo, that isn’t the case, at least as heard on this CD. The performance isn’t helped by a recorded balance that often has the strings sounding somewhat backward and the brasses sounding coarse and ugly in loud passages.

Things get off to a bad start in the first movement. The orchestral playing leading into the first big climax is very ragged and the timpanist enters late. The sound improves about 4 minutes into the movement and the strings become noticeably more forward, but this change of perspective will shift several times during the performance. The urgency leading into the main climax of the movement is derailed again by sloppy execution, while the coda sounds muddy with audible limiting.

From the standpoint of involvement, the Scherzo is the best movement in this performance. It is taken at a furious pace, but details are lost in the thick, opaque sound. For those familiar with Walter’s commercial recording, the sinister quality of the strings in the climaxes is striking and add to the intensity of the movement. Here those same string passages are almost inaudible, swallowed up by thick, coarse brasses.

I found the Adagio routine and indifferently performed. Perhaps others more sympathetic to Karajan’s approach will feel different. I tend to like Bruckner performances that emphasize lyricism and clarity of line, exciting climaxes, harmonic richness and beautiful orchestral sound. Here the Karajan approach sounds coarse and opaque with substandard orchestral execution.

My review copy consisted of the four discs packages in generic sleeves with a Xerox copy of Richard Osborne’s essay, which was brief and enjoyable, so I cannot comment on the retail packaging. The Karajan disc had numerous surface blemishes but played without skipping.

In sum, this set doesn’t represent good value for money. It could have been edited to fit on three discs instead of four. While the performances of Böhm and Furtwängler will be desirable to collectors of those conductors (perhaps the Karajan as well), I wouldn’t recommend this set to anyone else.