Customer Reviews

Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 (Royal Edition No. 25)

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In a recent interview James Levine commented that there were only two composers he would never conduct: Shostakovich and Bruckner. The reason he gave was that he couldn't add anythng new that others hadn't already said better. Bernstein admitted something similar when he told an interviewer that Karajan had already said all that could be said about Bruckner (a rare compliment considering the source.) I've also heard reports that he simply didn't respect the music.

Even so, LB gave the Ninth Sym. two tries, once on DG with the Vienna Phil. and here with his own NY Phil. on Sony. Both performances misfire. Bernstein can't find a way to combine his own emotionalism and romantic grandiosity with Bruckner's, and the result feels awkward and unsympathetic. As a document of a great conductor offering some unusual ideas, this CD merits only passing interest. It's like hearing Furtwangler in Ravel or Bartok.

P.S. 2011 - In hindsight I sound too dismissive. the orchestra plays well, and the reading is nicely proportioned, with no exaggerations or expressive overload. I can see other listeners liking this Ninth, but they would have to be attuned to one of LB's rare episodes of straightforward conducting without personal involvement.

I myself didn't hear Bruckner's music until 1974 when I heard a re-release (on Time-Life, The Story of Great Music, The Opulent Era) of Klemperer's EMI recording with the Philharmonia of the second version of the Fourth Symphony. Not long afterwards I checked a recording of the Ninth out of the library and it was this one by Bernstein. I loved the Adagio but didn't love the whole Symphony the way I'd fallen in love with the Klemperer Fourth. But not long afterwards I bought a 2-LP set on DG of the Ninth and the Te Deum with the Berlin Philharmonic and Eugen Jochum. Finally I understood Bruckner's last utterance (and got quite a thrill from his best-known choral work too). Sadly the attempt Bernstein made to essay into the depths of Bruckner's final Symphony didn't work when compared to other conductors as I instantly found out. The Adagio is spectacular but the opening movement is not what Bruckner called for and the Scherzo is too fast. Listen to Jochum's account with the Berlin PO on DG and you will hear the difference. Bernstein should not have tried to record this one -- but he did anyhow.

The celestial vision and final certainty of Bruckner was beyond Leonard Bernstein, or perhaps Bernstein was too far beyond and above Bruckner, a simple man who Knew what he Knew. More than ten years after, I still remember my initial disappointment, and mounting amusement, when I played the Bernstein CD. The only worth of Bernstein's parody-like interpretation is comparative, and as a lesson that even geniuses have their limits. The best starting point for appreciating this greatest of symphonies is the version by Carlo Maria Giulini, who proceeded with perfect humility to capture Bruckner's vision of heaven, the closest I'll probably ever get to it.

I got the "Bernie's Symphony Edition" for Christmas. Now I know what Leonard Bernstein recorded for Sony. Aside splendid directions (Berlioz' Symphony Fantastique is a jewel, Brahms' Symphonies are really beautiful, too), this CD: Bruckner's 9th. Ouch, it hurts ! First movement is nice, moving. Well, I wish it had stopped here. 2d movement is really horrible, and 3rd is quite as desappointing. OK, let's get back to Gunter Wand and some others. Ouch.

Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic's 1969 recording of Bruckner's 9th Symphony (Nowak Edition) is one of the last titles available in the classic Sony Royal Edition series. While many of these titles have been reissued in the Bernstein Century series, this one has not, which probably accounts for its current availability. While Bernstein was not generally thought of as a Brucknerian, I have always enjoyed this account, and rank it favorably with other versions of the 9th I own by Jochum (EMI and DG), Wand, Walter and van Beinum. If you are interested in this title, I would move fast as most Bernstein Royal Edition titles are now out of print, and most likely this one will suffer the same fate shortly.