Customer Reviews

Bruckner: Symphony No. 3 "Wagner"

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It's not a pretty picture, the unsmiling, grim-faced Harnoncourt we see in photos, and I am turned off by his jagged, quirky Beethoven and Mozart, but in Bruckner Harnoncourt shines, dropping every mannerism and diving into pure, glorious musicality. Every one of his Bruckner recordings has shot right to the top of modern versions, and this one is no exception. Very good sound and marvelous orchestral laying, but that's true of all his other Bruckner readings as well.

Maybe Harnoncourt should just avoid composers born in the nineteenth century altogether. A superb conductor of Baroque and Classical music, Harnoncourt often falters when conducting Romantic repertoire. It is difficult to determine why this is so; perhaps the sensibility of the age runs counter to his own taste and interests. Harnoncourt's work here is not incompetent, but his approach to Bruckner lacks a discernible point of view. Bruckner is a difficult composer for many conductors to grasp, a composer who demands patience and thought from his interpreters. For the insensitive conductor, to ignore Bruckner's complexities, which require great scrutiny and an open mind, is to risk plodding through his works without ever finding their pulse. While Harnoncourt is too talented to ever be completely bereft of ideas, he never comes near to finding the pulse of this work either. There are sections in each movement that bring to mind a conductor, chin resting in palm of hand, leaning on one elbow, waving the baton in desultory fashion with his other hand, thoughts elsewhere, wishing he were on a beach somewhere far, far away. Even when his tempos mirror those of other conductors in this work, the result sounds rushed and muddled. The Royal Concertgebouw produces some gorgeous sounds, but that is not enough to recommend such a shapeless and passive interpretation. In short, a Buckner recording that only reinforces the popular misconception that the composer's works are defined by aural drudgery, thick textures, massive and forbidding walls of sound, and endless development to no great end.