Customer Reviews

Bruckner: Symphony No. 6

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Gunter Wand was beloved by musicians and British critics. I've reviewed perhaps twenty of his recordings and found only a single performance -- the Bruckner Eighth recorded live in Lubeck Cathedral -- which struck me as great. Of the rest, many are workaday, but I keep hoping, and RCA keeps reissuing. Since this Bruckner Sixth, first issued in 1991, derives from a live performance in Hamburg in 1988, it promises to catch Wand at his liveliest. In the Gramophone, the redoubtable Richard Osborne didn't want to topple Klemperer from his place on the altar, but he declared that Wand's Bruckner Sixth was truly great. Really?

As with another so-called problem symphony, the Mahler Seventh, the Bruckner Sixth has slowly achieved a number of superb recordings, including those from Keilberth, Celibidache, Klemperer, Haitink (the live reading on Profil), and Furtwangler, despite the loss of the first movement. It's true that some of the usual suspects among Bruckner conductors are missing, notably Karajan, Giulini, Harnoncourt, and Bruno Walter, who either didn't record the work or fell short if they did.

In the first movement Wand is notably gentle and lyrical, smoothing out contrasts and making the famous Morse Code figure that opens the work less staccato. His way with this music is spontaneous and moves organically, in marked contrast to Klemperer's strong sense of structure. There's a similar songfulness, along with restrained modesty, in the way Wand handles the Adagio, always considered the heart of this symphony. Here one notices that the woodwinds of the NDR orchestra are no great shakes, but the overall orchestral sound is good for a live recording. Compared to the usual timing of 17 min. plus, Wand is fractionally quicker (16 min.), but I am more struck by his resolve not to sink too deeply into the music's emotions. anyone who finds Bruckner ponderous will be pleased, however.

The Scherzo proceeds with a touch more vitality than what came before. Wand still remains lyrical, and he's not out to deliver awe-inspiring climaxes. To me that's a loss, but there's a school, now growing more popular, who see Bruckner in line with Schubert, so Wand's avoidance of monumentality will be welcome there. I found myself the most enthusiastic in the finale, however, where Wand's propulsive pacing and strong, assured phrasing are remarkable. Bruckner tends to end his symphonies with disjointed quasi-rondos that can fail to summon a crowning ending, but Wand makes this finale sound completely convincing, never letting the various episodes lose sight of the main thrust.

In all, I'd call this one of Wand's marked successes in Bruckner, even if I can't agree that it's a great performance. (Note: This CD currently sells for $207 at Amazon Marketplace. That's a relief. They had gotten a reputation for being unreasonable.)