Customer Reviews

Bruckner: Symphony No. 4

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Lately I've been buying fewer Testament CDs -- with the new higher list price it's simply too hard to justify buying so many historical recordings, particularly when competing series like DG's "Musik...Sprache der Welt" (see my reviews) offer similar titles for 60% less money. However, there are exceptions to every rule, and when I came across a used copy of this Bruckner 4th by the great Hans Knappertsbusch in NYC a few months back, I simply couldn't pass it up. This revised version of the "Romantic" Symphony was recorded with the Vienna Philharmonic in mono in 1955, originally for Decca. Through Kna's other performances -- a 5th in the Decca Classic Sound series, and an 8th on MCA/Westminster, both now OOP -- I knew he was one of the great Brucknerians of the LP era, and this recording is similarly inspired. My only concern with this release comes from the fact that so many Decca titles being licensed out to Testament are beginning to show up a few years later in Decca/Universal's own "Original Masters" box sets. After plunking down nearly $70 for the three recent Kna Testament reissues, what's to say that the same won't happen with these recordings -- that they'll be available in a couple of years time, for half the price along with the aforementioned OOP Bruckner 5th and 8th and much more, as "Hans Knappertsbusch: The Complete Decca & Westminster Recordings." Ah, I guess this is the classical connoisseur's conundrum! But in the meantime, this is brilliant Bruckner, even if you have to buy it again later.

I remember this recording when it first came out on London/Decca LP. The CD transfer is very good. Very few conductors were able to bring the passion and spiritual depth to Bruckner that Knappertsbusch did. Highly recommended.