Bruckner: Sinfonie Nr. 9 D-moll

Anton Bruckner (Composer), Eugen Jochum (Conductor), Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra), Sinfonie-Orchester des Bayersichen Rundfunks (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonie-Orchester des Bayersichen Rundfunks
• Conductor: Eugen Jochum
• Composer: Anton Bruckner
• Audio CD (July 13, 2004)
• SPARS Code: ADD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Deutsche Grammophon
• ASIN: B0002IJ8IK
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #695,205 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Bruckner, January 6, 2005

By 

Michael B. Richman (Portland, Maine USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bruckner: Sinfonie Nr. 9 D-moll (Audio CD)

I am beginning to fall in love with DG's new "Musik...Sprache der Welt" series. Sure a few of the titles feature selections that have already been or continue to be available on other CDs (see my reviews of the Schubert Markevitch and Schumann Furtwangler titles), but the vast majority of these performances have been languishing in the vaults for far too long. Of course, the fact that these discs sell at mid-price when comparable classic historical performances from the EMI and Decca archives sell on labels like Testament for full-price, makes this series all the more worthwhile.

Conductor Eugen Jochum is generally regarded as one of, if not the single greatest, interpreter of the composer Anton Bruckner. His 1960s Symphony Cycle for DG (he also recorded ones for EMI and Philips) is the cornerstone of any Bruckner collection, but here we get to hear a 1954 mono account of the 9th Symphony with the Bavarian RSO. While Jochum's later stereo accounts of this massive work offer this listener more enjoyment, it is fascinating to discover even early on in the maestro's career how Bruckner thoroughly captured his imagination. This is a fantastic disc and certainly an historic one for serious Bruckner collectors. I would like to commend DG/Universal on producing another fine classical music series in "Musik...Sprache der Welt." Thanks for reminding us that there are still some great recordings that need to be reissued, and that we shouldn't have to pay a small fortune to hear them.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best performances of the 9th, ever, July 16, 2008

By 

DMH "music lover" (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bruckner: Sinfonie Nr. 9 D-moll (Audio CD)

I must confess at once that this was one of the first recordings of Bruckner's 9th Symphony that I ever heard, in the late 1960's: I recall finding the slow movement particularly moving in Jochum's performance.

Over the intervening years my love of Bruckner's music broadened and deepened, and I have been fortunate to attend many live performances of his works as well as building up an extensive collection of his works on disc.

There are some performances that are just "right". This is one of them. I managed to acquire a copy of this, the latest DG reissue, a while ago and for some reason it was a little while before I had time to play it through without interruption. The performance now strikes me as even better than I originally thought, while the recording (though in mono) has come up very well and in no way detracted from my enjoyment of this glorious music.

Jochum was in many ways an ideal Bruckner conductor and had the happy gift of being able to convey the musical argument successfully while at the same time allowing the pace to quicken a little or relax as the music dictates. Far too many conductors of this score resort to crude "stop-start" methods with disastrous results. There are other performances that I cherish (Wand's live Lubeck Cathedral recording on EMI originally; Georg Tintner's on Naxos) but in my view this early Jochum performance is right up there among the chosen few.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 5 star performance 3 star a little murky mono 1950s sound, July 26, 2007

By 

King Lemuel "Trust, but verify" (Puyallup, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bruckner: Sinfonie Nr. 9 D-moll (Audio CD)

The sound seems to improve as the music is being played. It is more murky at the start but nearly clears up after a minute or so and it is not hard to drift into the performance without thinking the sound is murky mono.

I am very reluctant to buy music from 1955 and earlier because the sound quality varies from very good to crapola and even the best is sub standard to what is now available. True, it is better than the even earlier historic recordings. For the same cash,though, we can get great performances in great sound. Two reasons to buy are if you are a collector, or if you like the artist and want to hear how he or she sounded in their younger days.

I have Jochum's Deutsche Grammophon complete Bruckner cycle (1957 to 1967) CD boxed set. This 9th in mono reminds me of that 9th in stereo, only that one sounds really good, as if the spirit of Walt Disney sprinkled star dust on it. The sound improvement is as great as going from black and white tv to color.

This mono version must have really wowed listeners back in its day. Even though in mono, it is still a very enjoyable performance to hear. The second movement scherzo seems to have a little more getty up than his other versions.

I greatly enjoy Jochum's Bruckner. Both his complete cycles are consistently excellent from symphony 1 to symphony 9. Doing this is no simple matter. There is a whole lotta music going on in Bruckner's symphonies. Buckner's 10 sympohonies time wise are almost as much as Mozart's 41 plus symphonies (9 CDs vs. 11 CD box set by Trevor Pinnock & the English Concert)and the orchestras are considerably larger.