Customer Reviews

Bruckner: Symphony No. 3 (1873 Original Version, ed. Nowak)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a magnificent and very expansive performance of the original 1873 score of Bruckner's 3rd symphony. When I first got this symphony, I could not figure it out right at first. After about 5 listens, it make sense and I liked it. After a few more, I loved it. After a few more, I was crazy about it. In this piece you hear something new every time you hear it. It greatly improves with repeated listening.(I was also a very young Brucknerian, I was just beginning my collection. That's actually probably the main reason.) If you don't figure it out right at first, don't let that discourage you. You could start out with a shorter performance of one of the cut editions, but I really think other editions pale in comparison to this one, the original. Tintner takes more time on the first movement then anyone else before him, clocking in at a whopping 30:34. No one else even comes close(the closest is something like 25:34). The first movement has so many wonderful passages in it. It is one of my favorite symphonic movements of all time. And Tintner's broad tempo only adds to the grandeur. However, he never drags it, or for that matter, the entire symphony. In fact, he makes others sound rushed and kinda bouncy. Bruckner marked this movement "Gemmasigt, Misterioso" or moderatly, mysterious. The slower tempo in particular makes the slower and quiet sections sound much more mysterious. The Adagio is a very beautiful piece and the RSNO strings sound really good in it. The Scherzo is the shortest and most energetic of the movements. Toward the end of the finale, we all the sudden hear the 2nd theme from the first movement. Then the main theme from the 2nd movement, and then the little turn figure at the beginning of the Scherzo before going of into the finale, triumphant Coda. A truly awesome moment. The Royal Scottish National Orchstra is a very fine ensemble with elegent strings and a glowing brass section. If you get just one performance of the 3rd, get this one. This performance is by far the greatest in Georg Tintner's cycle. .... You can't loose with this one. This is pure Brucknerian glory.

This is the first recording released by Naxos since Tintner's untimely death. It is a fitting tribute to his love for Bruckner and his achievement in bringing to us the original versions of the person whom he called "the master"s' works. The original version is seldom performed--and based on Inbal's earlier version, I thought with good reason. But this seems to be one of those cases where Bruckner's first instincts were right. It is always at first slightly distressing to hear passages that shouldn't be there (based on later versions) but after getting over the diorienting effects, the version seems totally convincing. The RSNO is a major orchestra and plays superbly. The sound is stunning. The interpretation is transcendent, sending shivers up and down one's spine. There is love, passion, hope and beauty in this performance. It goes to the top of my list of performances of the Third, even though I am very fond of Haitink's recordings of the second version of this, one of Bruckner's supreme achievements.

Anton Bruckner's most popular symphonies are no doubt numbers Four and Seven; most aficionados of the nineteenth century symphonic repertoire also are familiar with and feel fondness for numbers Six, Eight, and Nine. The Fifth is more daunting, but it is frequently recorded and has become something a test for daring interpreters. The remaining six symphonies - the oddly designated Symphonies Nos. "00" and "0," along with Nos. 1 through 3 - remain much less visited by conductors and constitute terra incognita for most listeners. Commentators sometimes remark that these scores do not reveal the mature Bruckner, who appears only with the Fourth. This is a pity, since even the "Doppelnullte" ("00") has much to offer. Georg Tintner, who died last year after completing the first fully integral recorded edition of Bruckner's cycle (for Naxos), understood this. Tintner's "take" of the Third Symphony makes a powerful case for regarding this work as, indeed, Bruckner in the major phase of his creativity. Tintner also respects the composer's initial version of the score, from which he later (on well meant but misguided advice from friends) excised hundred of bars. In restituting the excisions, Tintner restores the many Wagner quotations that not only ornament Bruckner's symphonic argument, but generate motifs and themes as well. Sir Roger Norrington also recorded the original version of the Third. His First Movement requires 18 minutes; Tintner's needs 30 minutes. For the Finale, Norrington requires 15 minutes, Tintner 20 minutes. The difference stems from Tintner's slow tempi; but this does not mean a limp or annoyingly undramatic persusal of the music. On the contrary, Tintner always manages to keep the tension up. He makes Norrington seem rushed. This CD is a first-rate installment in a first-rate Bruckner cycle.

A few days ago I attended a concert by the Florida Orchestra,with Stefan Sanderling conducting,which featured Bruckner's 3rd. Having never heard a Bruckner symphony in live concert I was quite excited before the performance. Slowly I became sorely disappointed. The edition Sanderling conducted was the third version (1888/89), and the version I was very familiar with was the original version (1873)played by Tintner- the one I am now reviewing. I cannot understand how any conductor would engage in such an injustice to themself, the audience, and Bruckner fans as to play the later and very truncated version. Bruckner scholars will readily admit this symphony fails structurally in more ways than one, however as they will state and the listener must realize is that Bruckner was opening new doors in symphonic writing and he himself was unsure of how to go about it. This does not mean he was an unable composer, it simply means he was entering a new world, one which he would soon perfect. As for the later versions I have done some Bruckner research and it is quite evident that Bruckner was influenced heavily by Viennese critics and his contemporaries. After the first performance the symphony was rejected and Bruckner began excising and re-orchestrating the symphony, often with his friends actively involved; friends who had no clue what Bruckner was really up to and merely wanted to help write what they wanted to hear. In his will Bruckner gives his original manuscripts to the Vienna library which contain his true intentions, and of which he frequently and significantly remarked 'for later times'.

Fortunately we have his original score and Tintner states, "To my mind this work as originally conceived suffered by its progressive mutilations more and more, and we should take the time to play and listen to this amazing original." Thank God Tintner did. The maestro does a wonderful job pulling this massive 77 minute work together. The moral of the story is this: if you want to hear the first symphony in which Bruckner is discovering/inventing a new symphonic world get this one. It is a compeling and interesting work.

Now that the late Georg Tintner's Bruckner cycle is virtually complete (his Bruckner symphony number one is listed for release and is gradually making its way around the world), it is interesting to consider the complete cycle overall - and in doing just that, one can't help but think that this version of the third symphony (together with the sterling performance of the fourth) ranks amongst the peaks of a searching, individual and deeply considered cycle.

This third is probably the longest ever (partly a result of the edition used and partly because of the slower than normal tempos) but it never seems to drag and every movement has its moments of power, and grandeur. But what makes this recording particularly important is the particularly successful first movement, which, because of tempo adjustments and care in regard to phrasing, sounds more convincing, flowing and effective than ever before - when even under greats such as Karajan, Bohm, and Jochum - it tended to sound just a little lumpy. (For example, compare Bohm on Decca/London). Here, at last, Tintner seems to have judged tempo issues to perfection and the movement is thus something of revelation.

But so too are the other movements. Never one to take an easy or slick path to conducting success, Tintner explores every angle and facet of this endlessly fascinating symphony and by so doing, elevates it to one of Bruckner's finest - and longest!

If you have never quite taken to the third symphony, buy this recording and be prepared to be astonished and perhaps surprised: if you (like me) just love the symphony anyway, buy it and be rewarded by one of the finest performances ever recorded. What a shame that Tintner did not live long enough to record the Naxos planned cycle of Bruckner masses, but, still, at least his name will now for all time be linked with one of his very favourite composers, and compatriot, Bruckner.

Like many of the other commentators reviewing this recording, I found it disconcerting and incredibly slow at first. I first heard this symphony almost 40 years ago, in the Szell recording of the last, must horribly cut version. Like most people, that's the version I got used to. So it is naturally "weird" to hear the piece with utterly different passages, and with principal melodies lengthened not just by slower tempi but by virtue of them actually being written out over more measures of music. This is the biggest change Bruckner made in this symphony: shortening the measures of the melodies, including the all-important opening theme. After about five listenings, however, one gets used to this. Once that happens, it changes everything. Now I can't listen to the later versions without thinking they sound ridiculously rushed and even shallow. There is no comparison. The only "fly in the ointment," and it's fairly minor, is that Bruckner somewhat improved the climactic endings of the first and last movements (in my humble opinion) for his later 1877 version. If only there were some kind of Haas hybrid using the later codas . . . but there isn't. In default of that, this version is the best. And Tintner's recording is by far the best of this version. A MUST BUY for any new or old Brucknerian.

BRUCKNER'S 3rd SYMPHONY

PERFORMANCE: 9 out of 10.

RECORDING: 9 out of 10.

THE VERSIONS OF THE 3nd SYMPHONY:

There are many versions of this symphony. The first modern edition (by Fritz Oeser) is basically the 1877 version with the the scherzo coda cut as in the first printing. Later, Leopold Nowak published the 1889, 1877 and 1873 versions. There are other versions as well that have yet to be published.

The 1877 version contains some cuts. The 1889 version is reorchestrated to sound more like Bruckner's later symphonies and has horrendous cuts to the recapitulation of the finale. These cuts totally destroy any resemblance to sonata form (i.e. an exposition of themes, their elaboration, their recapitulation and a summary or "coda".)

Tintner presents us with the original 1873 version. If you like your Bruckner butchered, then this isn't the version you'd want to hear. If you want the "Full Monty" then this is the one to get.

SUMMARY:

This CD lives up to the high standards that Dr. Tintner and Naxos have set. I hope that it will discourage the use of the later versions of this symphony, particularly the 1889 version. I heartily recommend the entire series to all those who are unfamiliar with the composer and to comparative "Brucknerheads".

So many people can't be wrong. This is an awesome recording and one of
the highlights in this Tintner`s symphonic cycle. Despite i prefer the
1.877 Bruckner revision on his 3rd symphony, it is a matter of wonder to
know the original composer's conceptions in his work and Tintner delivers
the best document to make that. Wonderful sound, great management of
balance and details into broad tempi. Strongly recommended.

Once again,i'm struck by Tintner's magic way with Bruckner.There's a natural sweep to the peformance which lets the music unfold in a compelling manner.I've previously resisted this Symphony finding it too unwieldy but i now realise this was the result of impatient tempos and butchered editions.Even the much heralded Knappertbush 1954 recording seems less than persuasive after listening to Tintner.If you're not in awe about 16 minutes into the slow movement (when Bruckner alludes to Tannhauser)then we're on a different wavelength!

I got to know this version through a concert from Frankfurt that I taped nearly twenty years ago. The conductor was Eliahu Inbal, and when his commercial recording was released on CD, I purchased it. I enjoyed the music and the performance well enough, but this Naxos release is a relevation.

Tinter and his orchestra sustain broader tempos that actually enliven the music more than the brisker pace set by Inbal -- not to mention Norrington in his recording.

This recording is definitely that "Wagner" Symphony devotees of Bruckner have read and wondered about -- the version shown to Wagner, the version dedicated to him. Tinter makes a great, romantic adventure of the music, and the taming of its excesses in later versions now seems completely at odds with the spirit and substance of this music.

Bruckner did get it right the first time, entering a new symphonic realm with the courage and wonder of Magellan challenging the Pacific Ocean. Tinter is the perfect pilot; he came to us late, but not too late to show us new horizons in Bruckner's music.