Customer Reviews

Bruckner: Symphony No. 1 (1866 Linz Version, ed. Haas/Carragan) / Adagio (1876) to Symphony No. 3

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Although the First is not the most popular of Bruckner's symphonies, it is nevertheless absorbing, not to mention tantalizing in its premonitions of the symphonies which would come later. The beginning of a new symphonic cycle can be an exciting event, and Bruckner's First, begun so late in the composer's life, is quite sophisticated - at least, in this highly evocative version by Georg Tintner and the excellent Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

This recording, the first of the original version from 1866, is very special, and Tintner's illumination will be startling for those who know the symphony. Some of the harmonic changes are almost radical, given the time period. The last movement is strange enough that it will have you rethinking the composer's work completely - no small feat. There were moments when I almost felt as if I were listening to early Schoenberg.

But small differences in the language are evident in the three prior movements as well. Without going into exhaustive harmonic detail, listening to this recording caused me to muse on how Bruckner's path might have changed, and music history altered, if this "first draft" had received overwhelming acclaim. It might have led to even more original thoughts in the subsequent symphonies. After hearing this recording, the revised versions seem, well, more conservative.

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra sounds magnificent, and I'm not even going to qualify that comment, as some have, by comparing them with other "more Brucknerian" orchestras. What has been accomplished here is huge, and the RSNO's beautiful, heartfelt playing must be considered in any assessment of success. They get the job done, and more so. The Naxos recording is gorgeous - one of their best - with glowing, realistic sound and the huge climaxes making a great impact.

But it is Tintner, who sadly died just as his Bruckner cycle was complete, who will be really missed. It is intriguing to imagine the heights he might have reached, had he lived to explore (and record) the symphonies further. And his liner notes - scholarly and persuasive - show us that he was a fine writer as well.

So I cannot recommend this disc highly enough, particularly for Bruckner fans - but anyone new to the composer will find it just as satisfying. All the Brucknerian hallmarks are here: the long phrases rising to ecstatic climaxes, the subtle chord progressions embarking on journeys to other keys, the glorious writing for massed choirs of instruments, especially the brass section. I only wish Georg Tintner were still alive so I could congratulate him on what he accomplished: a major addition to our understanding of this composer.

This is the 2nd CD of Tintner's Bruckner I have bought and I heartily recommend both of them (also the 9th).

One feels the presence of a master Brucknerian sharing his love of the music with the orchestra and with us. The notes enclosed were prepared by Tintner himself thus endowing the performance with an even more personal touch of the conductor.

Tintner presents in this rendering (of the original version) an expansive performance (opposite of Jochum) but just right, stressing the more heroic nature of the work. I particularly liked the 1st movement. I felt a bit disappointed with the 4th movement especially the climax after the 2nd (lyrical) theme. Maybe this is true to the original version but the almost total absence of the strings in this climax is disappointing.

The recording is excellent and the performance is very good. If I'm not mistaken the 2nd violins are positioned on the right (European style) and this is very enjoyable.

At the very budgeted price- a must.

Before his recent death, Georg Tintner bequeathed to the world the premiere recording of the original version of Bruckner's 1st Symphony. I would rate the performance as being 9 out of 10. The recording rates a 9 out of 10 as well. As for the version, anyone familiar with the usual "Linz Version" will not find many things very different. There are three passages in the finale that are somewhat different. Perhaps, a bar here or there in the other three movements as well. Nevertheless, I believe that this version has value since it gives us Bruckner's first thoughts. This CD lives up to the high standards that Dr. Tintner and Naxos have set. I heartily recommend the entire series to all those who are unfamiliar with the composer and to comparative Brucknerheads.

The Viennese-born Georg Tinter fled Nazi persecution of the Jews and wound up spending his musical life in New Zealnd, Australia, and Nova Scotia, far from the limelight. He rose to eminence as a Bruckner conductor largely thanks to Naxos, the label that used him for their Bruckner cycle with the Royal Scottish National Orch., a fine ensemble that itself was essentially unknown to Americans. Having completed the recordings in 1998, the 87-year-old Tintner committed suicide by jumping off his apartment balcony rather than face an agonizing end with terminal cancer.

His account of Sym. #1 displays how talented Tintner was. Early Bruckner symphonies already have the shape, intensity, and ambition of late Bruckner, but the melodies are less inspired, the orchestration hasn't found a cosmic dimension yet, and the counterpoint is feeble. Bruckner kenw where he was heading, and we can hear that, even though Sym. #1 wouldn't seem that satisfying if he had stopped here. Tintner doesn't do anything revolutionary to it--he just has a tuoch for Bruckner, keeping the rhythms alive, thrusting the climaxes forward a bit brashly at times, but always avoiding reverence and rhetoric. He makes this music feel genuine if not yet fufilling.

As an added bonus we get an alternate version of the Adagio to Sym. #3. In the thicket of Bruckner scholarship, which we amateurs enter at our peril, this 1876 revision is ocnsidered inferior for such things as the attempted Wagnerian string accompaniment to the main them on its final return, but weak or strong, Tintner gives the movement a reading as committed and enjoyable as the main work.

This is perfect to me, it's sweet and roaring, all when it counts. Tintner has the best timing with the early Bruckner symphonies. I would say that the recordings could have been a little softer in sound but then that would have been to perfect, I suppose. Just get it!

Georg Tintner died, by his own sad but understandable choice, in 1999 shortly after completing his Bruckner symphony cycle with this account of the first. Special interest attaches to this issue not just because this is the less-performed original version of the score of the first, but also because the disc finds space for another rarity in the form of yet another alternative slow movement -- the second of three in order of composition -- for the third.

Scholarship in the matter of different Bruckner versions is not something I can offer. However maybe I can be helpful to other non-initiates in the Bruckner cult simply by keeping my distance from that and saying how this particular set affects me as an interested but uncommitted listener. Those who often find Bruckner heavy going ought, if my experience is anything to go by, to find this version of the first symphony comparatively light work - I refer to the first movement at least. The conducting and playing must have a lot to do with this, which is not surprising when we consider Tintner's long-established eminence in rebus Bruckneriis together with the steadily growing stature of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Everything is as it should be in those departments, but the music itself helps matters in a big way. This symphony is one that I can envisage myself listening to repeatedly for enjoyment and not from some sense of duty to my own musical education. The first movement material is actually attractive rather than majoring in aspiration and soulfulness to the detriment of elements that seem to me specifically musical.

First impressions count, so there is my own first impression, and it carries me through the rest of the work. There is also a considerable makeweight in the shape of the rejected slow movement for symphony #3, 20-minutes-plus of it. You can get through entire Haydn symphonies, complete with the repeat of the first movement exposition, in that time. However at least this is an andante and not an adagio, and I'm not sure that I don't actually like it better than the composer's own final choice. Again the interpretation and playing are instinct with sensibility and commitment, as throughout the preceding symphony.

Not knowing a lot about the question of versions and revisions I naturally looked for instruction from the background liner note, and I can report that it is rather a good one, seemingly anonymous but followed by a short signed essay from Tintner himself about the symphony more specifically. The maestro is refreshingly open-minded on the question whether this or that revision is an improvement or not on its original, but I am not quite prepared to take on faith the other writer's seeming blanket generalisation that excisions by other enthusiasts are entirely for the worse. For me that is slightly suggestive of backing the safest option and pandering to orthodoxy, but of course it could be that while there is nothing in the nature of the case to prove that others' suggestions necessarily need rejecting it just so happens that they all do

I and my Sony equipment have no problem whatsoever with the recorded sound, which is luminous and beautiful to my own ears. I note with particular pleasure the partnership that Naxos have entered into with the orchestra from which I learned to love great music years, o years, ago. A recommendation of this issue comes with my hopes for the success of their joint venture as well as my posthumous tribute to Tintner.

Lo and behold, William Carragan has unearthed a hot-off-the presses First Symphony from 1866 when most of us hitherto had been thinking that the 1877 Linz edition was synonymous with the premiere. This is praiseworthy. Even so, rewrites by Bruckner can go either way. Simpson argues that the composer progressively ruined his Third Symphony. On the other hand, who can doubt that the Fourth and Eighth symphonies benefited greatly by the wholescale revisions if not recomposition?

So what of this original version of the First Symphony? Does it supplant the existing 1877 First?

To my mind, the answer is no. Indeed, a Charybdis has roared into being to accompany the Scylla that is the 1890 Vienna edition of the First. I detest both of them.

True, there are minimal changes to the first three movements. Most of the amendments come in the finale and to my ears, they are fussy and jejune. Listen to the Tintner at 4'57" which to my mind is where Bruckner becomes Bruckner. In the hands of a Karajan or a Barenboim (with the Berliners), it is also a textbook model of how to build and sustain momentum in a symphony. With Tintner, the argument is far more diffuse - and that's being polite. Bruckner was damned right to rework it in 1877 (and in passing, I urge you to avoid Wand in this symphony as he uses the 1890 version wherein a nervous Bruckner purged the youthful exuberance from the work: it is a travesty).

As always with Tintner, this is a Bruckner who does not smile. His Adagio is devoid of radiance. Credit-wise, the RSNO plays masterfully and the Naxos recording is superb.

While I have yet to hear the Young, the Karajan has commanded the high ground since the early 1980s and its longevity is no accident Bruckner: 9 Symphonies [Box Set]. There is also much to be said for the Barenboim which is one of the few highlights of his near-dismal cycle with the Berliners (Bruckner: Symphony No. 1 in C Minor (Linz version); 'Helgoland' (Symphonic Chorus For Male Voices And Orchestra)). Either of them will provide you with a better appreciation of this masterwork.

I am glad to have this great symphony in my CD collection of classic music. I've enjoyed a lot hearing it when I have enougth time. The quality of this recording is as hight as the music itself. I strongly recommend evryone to buy this CD.

Bruckner: Symphony No. 1 (1866 Linz Version, ed. Haas/Carragan) / Adagio (1876) to Symphony No. 3 is a recording under the direction of Georg Tintner who leads the Royal Scottish National Orchestra on this Naxos recording from 1998. The conductor himself has written the music notes which are quite informative and well-written. At the time this was a world premiere recording of an earlier version of Bruckner's first symphony that had not been recorded prior to this recording. Highly recommended. 5/5.

If the engineers had their act together, this would be a 4 or 5 star rating for me for the first 3 movements and a 3 star for the last movement. The playing is lively, well executed, and a joy to listen to if you can actually hear it.

Those with only a little familiarity with Bruckner know just how neurotic his music can be. Sometimes for two to four minutes the music is very low and hard to hear and then the trumpets blast and rattle the dishes in the cupboards. This loud/soft windshield wiper effect goes on thru almost every movement. The challenge for the recording engineer is to not distort the music in the loud passages and keep the levels high enough in the low passages so that the music can actually be heard.

Gunter Wand's Bruckner DVDs are an excellent example of sound recording done right. The low passages can actually heard without constantly fussing with the volume controls. Unfortunately, this CD is a bad example. Most of the low passages just drop right off a cliff into a sound black hole. The fourth movement has first a one minute section, then a two minute section, and then almost a three minute section where the levels are low to VERY low. Good luck trying to listen in your car or at home on Saturday and have the neighbor crank up their lawnmower. Not being able to hear 6 of the 15 minutes of the last movement is a real drag.

These level recording problems are on most of the Tintner NAXOS CDs.