Customer Reviews

Bruckner: The Complete Symphonies

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This set is a wonderful bargain, preserving the second of Jochum's integral recordings of the Bruckner symphonies. On Lp these performances, recorded in Dresden's Lukaskirche in the 1970s, sounded a little diffuse when compared with the Bruckner Jochum recorded for DGG in the '50s and '60s. Digital remastering has brought admirable focus to the EMI analog masters and these recordings now sound as good or better than their DGG counterparts. The performances are quite similar, except that the Dresden Staatskapelle plays with a warmth and tonal lustre that is superior to the Berlin and Munich orchestras featured in the DGG set.

In all cases, Jochum is the conductor for those people who enjoy the Schubert in Bruckner: melodic lines are flexibly projected with an inerrant sense of how they should relate to the structural argument. Some might find that Jochum's lyrical approach scants the rigors of Bruckner's architecture, that it's too "soft." They should seek out Klemperer and others. But for most people, Jochum is one of the three or four greatest Bruckner conductors ever and his recordings are, if not the last word on Bruckner interpretation, "must buys."

Three things to note. First, throughout his career, Jochum only played the canonical Bruckner symphonies, 1 thru 9; you won't find symphonies "0" and "00" in this set. Second, Bruckner exists in different peforming editions, the most famous being those prepared by scholars Robert Haas (in the 1930s and '40s) and Leopold Nowak (in the 1950s). I should point out that Jochum consistently favored the Nowak editions. (Except in the case of the Eighth Symphony, the differences between Haas and Nowak aren't really important except to scholars. But Amazon's description of this set claims that Jochum used the now-discredited Schalk editions. Not true!) Third, setting aside whose edition you play, Bruckner himself prepared various versions of many of his symphonies and these differences matter. Mostly, Jochum plays the Bruckner versions that have come to be regarded as standard. But, in the case of the Third Symphony, Jochum, like most conductors of the old school, plays Bruckner's 1889 (third and final) version. Most conductors today favor Bruckner's second version from 1876-1877. (On Naxos, Bruckner maverick Georg Tintner prefers Bruckner's even more expansive first version from 1873. See my review of the new [2/2002] Naxos 'White Box' collection of all Tintner's Bruckner performances, also available at a budget price!) The 1889 version is the one I grew up with and Jochum's performance is superb; but, like many people, I have come to prefer the more expansively argued 1876/1877 version.

OK, back to the set. Sound quality is fine throughout, and the price is fantastic. And about the packaging. Bravo, EMI, for ending the lunacy of gigantic boxes of jewel trays that look ugly and take up half a foot or more on your shelf! This soft box format is slim and elegant. The individual CDs are held safe and snug in rigid cardboard envelopes, and the box itself is nice to look at and plenty sturdy. In other words, unless you use your CD boxes as hockey pucks, I don't see any reason to believe that the packaging won't last longer than you do. But hey, if you really need to own those old, clunky, plastic jewel boxes and multiples, look elsewhere. If you're interested in the music, this set is a fabulous bargain!

I have just finished listening to the complete cycle for the second time. This is the Holy Grail of Bruckner Symphonic recordings. I like it better than the BPO recordings, with him that I used to have. I have put away all of the other 'favorite' recordings of the symphonies to never to be listened to again, no matter how sumptious, idyosncratic or whatever.

After listening and then reading about Maestro Jochum's growing up with this music and holding it to himself as he would the Bible shows his mastery of these works. My old criteria was to listen to a performance of the 9th as compared to Bruno Walter's 60's performance done for Columbia/Sony. Jochum blows him away and the Staatskapelle of Dresden is marvelous. Maybe not as sumptious as the BPO or PHO, but the brass!!! Oh, the brass! What wonderful a sound. Is it the cathedral or the section itself? Such power and such a beautiful, dark even mysterious sound. I loved it.

If there was a tiny weak spot it had to be the sixth. Maybe I just need to listen to it more. The construction of it seemed to be a little weak. As I say, it might be just me and I am willing to listen to it until it becomes more familiar to me. I had thought the fifth to be the 'quirky' one before, but Maestro Jochum brings about a different approach to the themes and juxtaposes them either slow or faster, softer or louder or much more expressive than the other recordings I have. The result is the most awesome and powerful performance of the lot.
To me, the fifth was his first great symphony and Jochum brings it forth as no other. The seventh, eighth and ninth are also so marvelous to almost be beyond describing.

I HAVE JUST ADDED THIS IN!! WHAT PLANET WAS I ON WHEN I LISTENED TO THE 6TH SYMPHONY THE FIRST TIME!!? How magnificent!! This could be the hidden gem in the whole lot! Bruckner was a monumental mover of blocks of music. That is the only way I can state this. The magnificent way he uses descending scales against ascending scales, and they seem to move upward together. I guess what threw me, the first time, was the melodic construction. The fifth was a curiosity until I heard the awesome, magnificent recording on this set. But, hearing the 6th for the third time now I think this is Bruckner's homage to Wagner. I thought I heard praises to the 'Ring' here and the 'Liebestod' in the adagio. Very beautiful music in this symphony. The finale is the most ecstatic expression, in my mind, of any of the symphonies, yet since I have received this set, these symphonies are the only music I listen to. His music is so holy, to me. A man's expression of ultimate love of the Creator (or whatever one calls him/her/energy/spirit-all of the above) and his effort to make universal music grasped by all lovers of deep, spiritual expression in music. His music is, truly, like no other composers' and it is worth the listening and re-listening to ingrain the inner movement it creates.

One of the reviewers says that if you have heard one Bruckner Symphony you have heard them all. That may be true and what we may be hearing is the composer's inexorable movement toward perfection and a cyclic expression of it. I seem to have heard threads of earlier symphonies in the later compositions, and it seemed to me to be a complete whole expression of them all. I hope that makes sense. We know that he was constantly revising his work and it works because his music, as idiosyncratic as it is, develops into a surprisingly coherent whole.

Bruckner's music is like no other's. I think that Sibelius may be the only one to approach the monolithic style of him. I read, one time, Bruckner's music being compared to other composers and the comment was that other's were composed to bring joy and whatever. Bruckner's was to move mountains and this set proves it.

I recommend this set the highest of any other that I have on this venue before. An absolute must for any library. Play it when you want to feel close to God or whoever you believe or worship because it will move your heart and soul.

Maestro Jochum, thank you for moving this humble man to his very heart and soul

I have heard these recordings on both Angel and EMI lps, on the first cd boxed set issue, on the more recent "twofer" issues (3 and 7, for example) and on Seraphim cd (4 and 9). This new compilation has by far the best sound. This is absolutely beautiful Bruckner, and I don't know how the riches of these recordings eluded the engineers till now.

I just finished listening to symphonies 1 through 3 and the warmth and balance of the sections of the Dresden orchestra remind me of Dutch painting from the 17th century. Everything glows, and seemingly glows from within! The sheer weight of the sound at the end of the Second Symphony first movement amazed me, and that is just one example.

I'm not sure if these were all originally analog recordings or part analog, part digital as in the von Karajan DG set. Frankly, I don't care. I'm just glad they got it right this time!

Ideally, I wanted to review the DG Jochum cycle, since I actually prefer that one, but it's NLA as of this posting, so I'll just make some comments about both cycles here.

Eugen Jochum may have been the greatest advocate of Bruckner, of the 20th Century. However, I have lived with this cycle, and especially the DG one, for many years now, and I have come to view his Bruckner interpretations as somewhat overrated, even in comparison with his "old school Bruckner" colleagues. Perhaps my opinion is a little skewed by overexposure, but I have other recordings I turn to more frequently that have not started to "wear" on me as much as some of Jochums. For one example, I am not, by any means, a "Karajan freak" (I have also come to view his last VPO Eighth, over which most people seem to be "ga ga," a bit overrated, as well) but I find his full DG cycle from the 70's and early 80's, for one, to be more consistently satisfying, with the exception of the first, fourth, and sixth, in all of which Jochum is clearly better, imo. I must say I do get tired of the cliches' about Karajan's performances being too "cool, polished, and sterile," and Haitink's being too "light," etc. These preconceptions, often based on preconcieved opinions about the conductors themselves, precludes people from really having to seriously consider their recordings, just as the opposite preconception that Jochum is THE Brucknerian of the century tends to make his recorded preformances somehow beyond reproach.

Based on Jochum's reputation, I eagerly awaited the DG cycle, back at a time in the late 80's when I was first getting into Bruckner when there were relatively few Bruckner recordings in print. Even on first listening, there were certain things about his interpretations that didn't sound right to me. Admittedly, at that time, I knew virtually nothing of the "old school," with its more flexible tempi, dynamics, and more dramatic approach, to Bruckner. Since then, I have become very well acquainted with recordings of the "old school" Bruckner conductors such as Schuricht (his 1943 Ninth is one of my ten favorites), Furtwangler (his 1944 Ninth might BE my favorite), Hausegger, Kabasta, Abendroth, Matacic; Walter and Horenstein's mono recordings, etc. etc...and I still don't find many of Jochum's interpretations to compare all that favorably.

One thing you can say with some degree of confidence about Jochum is that most of his interpretations are amazingly consistent over a half century of recordings. Compare his recordings of the Fourth and Seventh from the late 1930's to those from his later DG and EMI cycles, and they are remarkably similar, both in terms of timings, tempos, and phrasing. Two examples of "Jochumisms" that have come to grate on me a bit over time are: 1) As much as I love most of his Fourth, esp. the finale, which I think he "nails" better than any other conductor, I feel that he turns the andante quasi allegretto into an adagio (in general, I can never understand why many conductors insist upon turning this flowing movement into a dirge); 2) The slow tempo he chooses for the lovely "enchanted forest" motif (as I call it) that flows out of the beautiful intro of the Seventh, which ultimately steers the whole first movement toward a slow and stodgy tempo. Jochum's Seventh almost sounds like it starts out with two adagios. His first movement isn't excessively slow in terms of it's total timing (and I've noticed that many listeners pay too much attention to timings anyway), but in terms of it's lack of flexibility and flow: there are readings of this movement a minute of two longer (like Chailly, for example, although I think his Seventh is a bit overrated) that still have a better sense of ebb and flow to them. Some examples of sevenths I prefer to Jochum's are Sinopoli's; Karajan 70's DG; Inbal's; Wand's 70's Cologne recording; Furtwangler's 1951 BPO (Rome); Abendroth's 1956 recording; and Haitink's 70's recording.

Jochum's Fifth was one of the biggest disappointments of my Bruckner collection, esp. after all of the things I had heard about it's legendary status. Although I think his inner movements are just fine (except the slow movement of his 1938 Fifth, which I found a little too slow), I think he is too slow--and even more importantly not flexible enough--in the all important outer movements. But the "Jochumism" that grates on me the most, in ALL of his recordings, is his excessive stretching out of the coda of the finale, made even less convincing by the lack of a strong underpinning of timpani. Karajan (whose DG Fifth was my first, and is still my favorite, followed by Horenstein, Welser-Most, and Gielen) augmented this thrilling coda--Bruckner's best, even better than the Eighth's, if it's done properly--with an extra set of timpani, and very effectively. If any of you are rolling your eyes (esp. you "Karajan-bashers") at Karajan's use of extra timpani, remember that Jocum augmented the brass section for the famous chorale of the Fifth's finale...this is part of what the vanishing art of interpretation is all about. On the subject of timpani, one of the characteristics of the Bruckner "old school" was the ideal that the Bruckner orchestra started from the ground (bass) up, and needed a strong underpinning of timpani (too often missing in recent recordings), esp. in climactic moments: Furtwangler's recordings provided the best example of this; most of Jochum's recordings are surprisingly lacking in powerful timpani, and this is particularly exposed in his somewhat melodramatic lengthening of the Fifth's final coda.

In general, I find Jochum's Eighth and Ninth to be a bit terse, except for his readings of the third movement of the Ninth, which was consistently one of his best movements, esp. his Dresden recording. If his readings of 1-7--except, again, his 1,4, and 6, which I find generally excellent--tended to lack flexibility on the slow side, the outer movements of his Eighth and the first movement of his Ninths tended to lack flexibility on the fast side. One very notable exception, however, is his 1949 Hamburg Eighth, which is my very favorite Jochum recording, and perhaps one of my ten favorite Eighths overall. He gets everything right here, with a good amount of flexibility...which makes it even more puzzling to me that the outer movements of his later recordings of the Eighth were so terse by comparison.

As far as the merits of the DG cycle versus the EMI, again, there is very little to choose as far as interpretations: they are remarkably similar. The only difference that really jumped out at me was that the first movement of the Dresden Ninth was not only a little too terse, but strangely "herky jerky" in terms of some awkward tempo relations, which create more distraction than tension. Although I feel that the adagio of the Dresden Ninth is Jochum's most searching account of this movement, I still like the Ninth from the DG set a bit better.

In terms of recorded sound, again I'd have to give the nod to the DG cycle. The older DG recordings sound more natural to me, whereas the late analog EMI recordings are a bit too brightly lit, almost sounding like early digital in places. The seemingly endless permutations of packaging, repackaging, and recoupling of both of these cycles, and the individual recordings from them, has become a bit absurd, but at least it has made it very easy to pick up most of these recordings in used CD bins.

Anton Bruckner has often been accused of writing the same symphony over and over again until he finally got it right toward the end of his life. While this is certainly an overstatement, there is a definate similarity between Bruckner symphonies that is remarkably consistent throughout his output. He always puts the same syle of movement in the same places (Opening movement, slow movement, scherzo, finale), uses the same formal procedures (rather than the traditional 1st theme/2nd theme/codetta of sonata allegro form, Bruckner masses several themes into a first theme group/second theme group/third theme group), an organists approach to orchestration dominated by massive blocks of sound rather than impressionistic effect. These hallmarks of Bruckner's style span his entire life and output, making him one of the most consistent composers in the repertoire. As a result, if you love one Bruckner symphony, you'll probably love them all. And visa versa.

I fall into the love category. Bruckner's symphonies are marvelous romantic edifices. At his best, Bruckner can storm heaven and plumb the depths of the psyche in equal measure. They are primarily spiritual testimonies, monuments to Bruckner's rather simple faith. All of them are worth a listen, and some of them are true masterpieces (4th, 7th, 8th, and 9th and maybe the 6th as well.)

I judge my Bruckner symphony cycles by the readings I hear of the 7th and 8th. The 7th is a marvel of symphonic writing. It's first theme soars out of the orchestra like the Grail theme of Parsifal, but with more power in my opinion. Each iteration of the theme should gather in intensity until the last one leaves you breathless. I have only heard this done supremely twice, once in a recording of a Furtwangler radio broadcast, and once in this reading by Jochum. Both conductors seem to be preternaturally in tune with Bruckner's aestetic and listening to the 7th is a spiritual experience.

The 8th comes from the opposite spiritual realm. The Eighth is initially a tragic symphony. The first movement builds to a grindingly tragic conclusion and the tension developed isn't resolved until the final bars of the piece. It is an overwhelming work. Jochum's is by far the best reading of this piece I've ever heard, even trumping the Furtwangler readings I know.

Jochum is supreme in all of this repertoire. He made his reputation as a Bruckner specialist, and you can hear his deep love of the composer in every measure. Jochum brings the same level of committment to the "lesser" symphonies like the 2nd and 3rd. Under his hand, I find that I like these works much better than I thought I did. I turn to them more than I did before buying this set, though I still spend most of the time with the great works.

If you are interested in the complete Bruckner symphonies this is the set to have. It beats the competition hands down. If you just want a sampling of Bruckner, I would still highly recommend Jochum's accounts. No other conductor, even Gunther Wand who has made such a splash in Bruckner circles, can touch Jochum in his sensitivity and ability to keep a forward line through this challenging repertoire.

Eugen Jochum is regarded by many critics as the foremost interpreter of Bruckner's music. This splendid Bruckner symphony cycle with the Dresden Staatskapelle is far better than any I've heard from other conductors, including some contemporary accounts. Jochum leads the Dresdeners in swift performances that are emotionally stirring, replete with ample warmth and brilliance. Although Jochum's tempi are fast, you don't miss the vast emotional palette covered in Bruckner's scores; he succeeds in illuminating the rich musical textures present in each of Bruckner's symphonies due to exceptional performances from the Dresden Staatskapelle's wind, string and brass sections. I doubt I have heard a brass section play Bruckner's music with such enthusiasm and clarity. The sound quality is fine for these late 1970's/early 1980's analogue recordings, though I wish EMI had taken the time to have them remastered using the latest digital image bit technology. Others may prefer Jochum's earlier Deutsche Grammophon cycle with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, but frankly, I think this has to be regarded as the definitive Bruckner symphony cycle.

The other complete set of Eugen Jochum conducting Bruckner's symphonies, of course, is the series he recorded for DG in stereo between 1958 and 1967 with the Bavarian RSO or (in Symphonies 1, 4, and 7-9) the Berlin Philharmonic, following a number of recordings of individual symphonies he made in the pre-LP days. Although Jochum's basic conceptions remained consistent over the years, that earlier set finds Jochum more consistently alert and a shade more vibrant than in this valedictory go-round with the canonical Bruckner symphonies, taped in the late 1970s. By comparison, the overall impression here is of slightly lower voltage, although the flip side is that this cycle is also just that much more serene, and aptly so (Bruckner's music has been described as "blazing calm").

Even so, this boxed set has a lot to recommend it, whether or not in preference to the DG cycle. There is the burnished and responsive delivery of the great Dresden orchestra, perhaps the oldest in Europe. There is EMI's warm and atmospheric sound, which in this remastering is considerably better focused and more detailed than in the first CD incarnation of this cycle. This cycle's Seventh and Ninth Symphonies arguably make a deeper impression than their counterparts in the DG series--even if the DG cycle compensates with more successful readings of the Fourth and Eighth. Above all, there is Jochum's lifelong identification with Bruckner's music (but NOT, as another reviewer suggested, due to a personal relationship between the conductor and the composer, who had died six years before Jochum was born!). Personal preference will dictate whether you go for the DG or EMI cycle; either way, you will hear Bruckner via one of the last exponents of a more flexible, less "monumental" (and also less stolid) approach to this composer's music.

Surely no conductor was a more persistent advocate of Bruckner's 9 symphonies. Jochum did not record the early "Study Symphony" or the so-called "Nullte" (#0) Symphony - he felt that Bruckner wanted them left un-performed. He gave us the first "complete" set (1958-1965) on DG; this later Dresden EMI set surpasses it in some respects, and fails to match it in others. No complete set by one conductor is going to provide the last word on each symphony - some of them will be addressed better than others.

How does Jochum/Dresden's complete set stand up to its rivals? In my view, it's up against a weak field - its strongest competition comes from Jochum himself on DG. Both of Barenboim's (Chicago and Berlin) are very uneven. Solti is as subtle as a plumber's wrench. Haitink is too careful and lightweight. Wand is cool and not that well recorded. Tintner is heavy-handed, and his orchestras are provincial. Skrowaczewski is rather prosaic and has a second rate ensemble. Karajan has many admirers - but I am not among them: his interpretations, to me, sound sterile and uninvolving.

Jochum on EMI has, with Dresden, one of the world's greatest orchestras. His earlier set uses the Berlin Philharmonic in Symphonies 1,4 and 7-9 - the balance is with his own Bavarian Radio Symphony, which Jochum founded in 1949.

On the basis of sound alone, the average listener is likely to prefer the Dresden, making it perhaps the best complete set for a newcomer to Bruckner's music - it is well-played, in modern sonics, and none of the performances is less than competent.

However, the Berlin Philharmonic is outstanding and the Bavarian Radio plays well. I would give DG the prize in Symphonies 1, 2, 4 and 6, while Dresden/EMI is very slightly preferable in 5, 8 and 9. For 3 and 7, it's a toss-up, although I lean towards DG in the Third.

Jochum's DG performance of #1 is one of the two or three finest Firsts ever recorded: I think it's Jochum's finest traversal of ANY Bruckner Symphony. In #2, everything goes smoothly until the last movement, which I find a bit aggressive in both versions. The DG #3 remains one of the finest stereo versions. I prefer Jochum's mono 1955 4th with the Bavarian Radio (on American Decca LP's) to either of those in the complete sets: it simply sounds fresher, more rustic, and a little closer to the source.

With Symphonies 5-9, the competition from other performances is overwhelming. Jochum's is a highly polished Bruckner - others convey more of the rural Austrian composer's earthy side. To my ears, Jochum is outshone in the 8th and the 9th by conductors as varied as Furtwangler, Schuricht, Horenstein, and Asahina.

Jochum's is not the last word in Bruckner - but he is a very fine spokesman. Anyone wanting to explore Bruckner's symphonic world could hardly do better than either of these complete Jochum sets. The EMI has excellent performances in modern recorded sound; the DG has a few superior readings, but in sound that is a bit dated. Either set offers many hours of beautiful music making. [Update 7-27-07]: This set has been re-packaged as a super-budget offering from Brilliant Classics (ten discs, with the 1999 Skrowaczewski "Zero" thrown in as a filler). Copies of the Brilliant set were recently available on the Internet for $29.90 from Berkshire Record Outlet.

Eugen Jochum's Bruckner set with the Dresden Staatskapelle was issued back in the late 1980s/early '90s on EMI to very high acclaim. FANFARE praised it and the reviewer declared the performances finer in some respects than the performances available on Deutsche Grammophon. The nine symphonies here included were recorded all with the same ensemble, whereas the cycle on Deutsche Grammophon features two orchestras. This re-issue of the nine (major) symphonies should be greatly welcomed by aficionados of late 19th century orchestral and symphonic music. Jochum had a unique understanding of Bruckner and his music. Both came from rural and Catholic backgrounds, and both were very familiar with the organ. Jochum's performances here are warm and human; textures are clear and very cleanly drawn. Unlike von Karajan's finely polished presentations, these Dresden performances--while certainly not neglecting the massive structural lines--offer us a spiritual Bruckner. Jochum is, IMHO, particularly successful in the 4th, 5th, 7th, and 9th symphonies, perhaps a little less so in the 8th. But, all in all, none of the performances is less than very fine. I must add that Jochum had a special understanding of Bruckner's 5th, which I think to be one of the most difficult of the symphonies to "bring off." A recent release on Tahra CDs of a Bruckner 5th, performed right before Jochum's death, makes a wonderful comparison with the Dresden performance. In any case, if you love great symphonic music, you shouldn't hesitate to acquire this set (that is, if you don't already have it!). Sound acoustic and remastering are fine.

This box set is obviously one of the best you can find (besides the Deutsche Grammophon version), conducted by the best Bruckner conductor, Eugen Jochum.
He has strength, character, originality, sensitivity, passion, deeply expressed in his conducting: thrilling, emotional, never dull nor lethargic, even in the slow and quiet moments.
You abandon yourself to the music, you forget everything, just feel the sensuality, the voluptuousness, the dream, the emotion, the depth... and then suddenly, the music rises, explodes violently, stormy, with impressive sounds and accelerated, wild rhythms that make your heart beat faster.