ANTON BRUCKNER - Beethoven Orchester Bonn

Transcription

ANTON BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 8 – Beethoven Orch. Bonn/
Stefan Blunier – MDG 937 1713-6
A stirring hi-res surround account of one of the great Bruckner symphonies.
Published on February 6, 2012
ANTON BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 8 in C minor WAB 108 (Version 1890) – Beethoven
Orchester Bonn/ Stefan Blunier – Musikproduktion Dabringhaus & Grimm MD&G multichannel
SACD 937 1713-6 (2 discs), TT: 88:30 [Distr. by E1] ****:
Swiss conductor Stefan Blunier with the Beethoven Orchester Bonn have tackled one of the great
monuments of the Romantic musical era in a convincingly monumental fashion. In this new, live
recording, the performance is of the second version of the symphony (1890). Either you like Anton Bruckner’s music or you
don’t. I do.
This sublime work, the last symphony Bruckner finished, is a crowning achievement, lofty in aspiration and spiritually
moving, not to say that his incomplete Ninth is not on the same plane.
German music historian H.H. Stuckenschmidt points out in his book Twentieth Century Music, “In a purely musical sphere, the
nine symphonies of Bruckner are …(an) expression of cosmic and cyclic thought and creation. Indeed, in Bruckner the
principle of variation can be seen on a gigantically-expanded scale.”
Following in the symphonic footsteps of Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann, Bruckner’s musical journey unfolds like a
majestic landscape of the actual and of the imagined. It is beautiful, devout, unearthly, scary, awe-inspiring and full of a
grandeur vast and magnificent. Blunier and the Beethoven Orchester capture these episodes in a convincing manner.
Benjamin Cohrs, who has successfully worked with others on finishing the unfinished final movement of the Bruckner Ninth,
points out there are 19 Bruckner symphonies, if you take Bruckner’s first and his revised versions as separate works.
Then there are the various editors’ versions. In the case of the Eighth, there are two versions by Bruckner. The first of 1887
was rejected by conductor Herman Levi. This sent Bruckner into a tailspin, but he did not give up and produced the revised
version of 1890.
Austrian musicologist Robert Haas, who was working for the International Bruckner Society to prepare proper editions of the
composer’s works, published in 1939 a mix of the 1887 and 1890 versions. Haas’ successor Leopold Nowak edited the 1890
version and published it in 1955. This is what Blunier presumably has used in this recording. Later Nowak edited the first 1887
version in 1972. There is an 1892 version by Bruckner and Joseph Schalk which has been discredited by some because of
Schalk’s excessive influence in terms of cuts and re-orchestration. Of three great Bruckner conductors, Karajan and Wand
prefer the Haas conflation of 1887/1890 and Jochum the Nowak edition of the revised 1890 version.
Blunier’s tempos strike a middle ground with a total timing of 88 minutes. I mention this matter of speed, because Bruckner’s
symphonies can become intolerable to sit through when dragged out. Celibidache on EMI slogs along, totaling 104 minutes.
Koussevitsky in a well-pruned 1892 Schalk version clocks in at 50 minutes.
The sound of this recording is very good, but not in-your-face spectacular in its SACD surround sound reproduction. The
orchestra has plenty of body and is realistic sounding. There is great depth for the brass and timpani, but the sense of space for
the front instruments is elusive.
MD&G records use what they call a true three dimensional system: 2+2+2. This was not auditioned (due to difficulty setting
up the additional speakers). [We have reviewed many of the 2+2+2 releases and will cover more soon...Ed.]
—Zan Furtwangler
DABRINGHAUS UND GRIMM AUDIOVISION GMBH • BACHSTRASSE 35 • D-32756 DETMOLD
TEL.: ++49-(0)5231-93890 • FAX.: ++49-(0)5231-26186 • [email protected] • www.mdg.de
The Bruckner Journal, Vol.16 No.1, March 2012 p.30
Bruckner - Symphony No.8 (1890 - Nowak, with Haas finale)
Beethoven Orchester Bonn / Stefan Blunier
2CDs 88’30 CD 1 18’.14, 14/19 CD2 29’34,26’18 Musikproduction
Darbinghaus und Grimm, MDG 937 1713-6
Live recording 12/13 May 2011
‘Hybrid Multichannel’ - plays on all SACD and CD players.
THIS IS the best CD performance of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony I have
heard for some years. As on their recent recording of the Symphony in D
minor, ‘Die Nullte’, there is on this disc playing of wonderful eloquence by
musicians whose commitment and desire to communicate seems to inform
every note they play. Horn, oboe and clarinet solos are not merely of
surpassing beauty - they speak, and what they say is always special. The
recording (heard on a CD player) presents a rounded deeply-glowing sound with glistening highlights and good crunchy
brass. There is, perhaps, some congestion in the loud tuttis, (which are probably more transparent heard on SACD 5.1
surround sound or even the 2+2+2 that MDG promote), so occasionally some inner voices are difficult to locate, but this
hardly detracts from the splendour of the overall picture. It’s a live recording, and you do hear the conductor stamp the
podium before big moments, but the audience are quiet and there’s no applause included.
Stefan Blunier’s interpretation is very passionate, as though a profound, bereaved melancholy informed the
heart of the symphony. He is not afraid of silence, the pauses get full measure, and the moments of transition between,
for example, the first and second theme groups of the first movement, sink into rapt near-silence before the new theme
arises with a vulnerable and wistful tenderness. It is a performance full of variations in tempo and dynamic.
Bruckner’s score ranges from ppp to fff, and these dynamic levels are scrupulously followed and reproduced on the
recording. That is not to suggest that this performance is tied slavishly to the score, taking refuge in literalism in the
absence of interpretative courage: far from it! There is some fiddling with the score - I notice, for example, that right at
the beginning, the timpani entry with the fortissimo statement of the first theme is transposed and delayed 4 bars from
bar 27 to bar 31 - but more significant, where the music calls for some quickening or expressive intensification, Blunier
is always prepared to give it. As the first movement second theme repeats its opening phrases, the trombones come in
with four bars of energetic accented elaboration, (bars 81-84) and in this performance they leap into it with manic
enthusiasm, giving it a slightly faster tempo and an eloquent contrast to the gentle introversion of the preceding string
passage. It’s very effective.
Whether you like this way of playing Bruckner will depend on how the overall expressive purpose appeals to
you. Such interpretative interventions can be irritating: Klemperer in the Scherzo of the Seventh with the Philharmonia
does a sudden unmarked diminuendo and crescendo, and it’s carried off well, but when Thielemann in his recent
recording of the Eighth with the Dresden Staatskapelle does something similar in the Scherzo (bars 53 & 185), on
repetition it becomes, to me, absolutely infuriating. It is possible that some listeners will react similarly to Blunier’s
way with the Eighth, but I find what he does always eloquent, always inspired. Some conductors have the idea that they
wish to impose something of, say, Furtwängler’s or Jochum’s flexibility on the music, but they don’t have the true inner
voice and it just sounds artificial and, precisely, ‘imposed’; with this Blunier performance everything seems to rise from
unforced inspiration.
The Scherzo is sprightly, not much of the ‘moderato’ that Bruckner asks for, and the shimmering strings waft
like mist around the urgent, firmly-accented repetitions of the theme. The Trio is a wonderful performance: it enters
veiled and dreamy, like Bruckner’s description of ‘deutscher Michel’ dozing, not too slow, and then the central section
becomes grave, as though he had fallen into a deeper, haunted sleep. The third part re-emerges into the day-dream, but
now less innocent, informed by deeper knowledge. The Adagio is wonderfully slow, lasting very nearly the full half hour,
but always very intense, eloquent, ‘spiritual’ - the phrases beautifully moulded, and never for a moment does it drag.
Although it’s the Nowak edition, the violins leave the last few notes of the harp arpeggio at the climax unaccompanied, as
in Haas, at which point their fff ‘sehr markig’ continuation comes in with immense heft and trenchancy.
I wasn’t quite so taken with the Finale at first, but on repeated listening it has grown in strength. The main
theme is played relatively fast, certainly faster than Bruckner’s metronome mark, but by the third theme group things
have slowed considerably, and much of the development has that Brucknerian ‘patience’, an absolute confidence that
things must take their time. The voices in the fugal recapitulation of the third theme ‘march’ are so nicely balanced that
the effect of the off-beat counter-theme is quite unsettling, preparing the troubled ground on which the first movement
main theme grimly returns. In the blazing coda there is perhaps a slight sense that the brass are getting tired, their
dotted rhythms not quite as energetic and piercing as one might wish, and the CD sound is a bit short on detail, but it’s
all brought to a glorious finish with only the slightest ‘rit’ on the falling semiquavers, and a perfect sense of finality. A
performance well worth adding to one’s collection.
Ken Ward
.
Februar 2012
ANTON BRUCKNER
Symphonie n° 8
Beethoven Orchester de Bonn
Stefan Blunier
MDG- MDG 2 CD 937 1713-6(SACD)
Référence: Rögner (Berlin Classics)
On dit parfois d'une parution qu'elle "n'apporte rien à la discographie".
C'est exactement le cas des Bruckner de Stefan Blunier à Bonn.
Inutile d'enregistrer des versions qui font exact double emploi avec
d'autres, mais avec des orchestres de moindre qualité et une moins
grande tenue interprétative. L'approche de Bruckner de Blunier est peu
ou prou interchangeable avec celle de Lorin Maazel, héritière de celle
de Karajan. Les défauts sont les mêmes (des phrasés peu mouvants) et
le luxe moins grand tant au niveau des cuivres que des cordes.
Il ne faudrait pas que les éditeurs s'imaginent que cela ne s'entend pas...
--Christophe Huss
__________________________________________________________________________________
TEL.: ++49-(0)5231-93890 • FAX.: ++49-(0)5231-26186 • www.mdg.de • [email protected]
MDG 937 1713-6
27.05.2012
BRUCKNER Symphony No. 6 • Ivor Bolton, cond; Salzburg Mozarteum O • OEHMS 404 (54:36) Live:
Salzburg 10/23–25/2010
BRUCKNER Symphony No. 8 • Stefan Blunier, cond; Beethoven O Bonn • MDG 937 1713-6
(2 SACDs: 88:25) Live: Bonn 5/12–13/2011
It seems fitting to evaluate this pair of substandard accounts within a single, composite review. Doubly
so because both of these live recordings are really just composites of concerts given on different days,
with the best parts glued together in post-production. One can only wonder what sort of mishaps
occurred in those concerts that made it so necessary to pick and choose (a loud audience sneeze,
some out-of-tune strings, or a few muffed notes from the brass?). Oddly enough, Stefan Blunier’s Eighth
here also turns out to be a textual composite because it mixes two different editions of Bruckner’s 1890
score.
Ivor Bolton’s Bruckner Sixth employs the Nowak edition, which is virtually identical to the earlier one by
Haas. What’s harder to determine is the actual size of Bolton’s ensemble. A photo in the CD booklet
suggests that the Salzburg orchestra has a total of roughly 80 players, but I think a much smaller
portion is used in this Sixth. About two years ago, Bolton brought his ensemble to Northern California
and performed Schubert’s “Great C-Major” Symphony in the Mondavi Center at UC Davis. I was unable
to attend the concert, but a friend who did go there told me that exactly 36 players were on stage. I then
consulted my Schubert score and found that it calls for two each of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons,
horns, and trumpets; three trombones; plus timpani and strings. If you subtract 16 from 36, the
remainder will equal 20 strings. By contrast, Bruckner’s Sixth requires a slightly bigger contingent than
the Schubert—two additional horns, an extra trumpet, plus one bass tuba. Assuming the same number
of strings, it would thus appear that Bolton’s account is played by a total force of about 40. In other
words, the ensemble used in this Sixth probably is not much larger than a medium-size chamber
orchestra.
Orchestra size per se is not the main issue here; podium leadership is the crucial factor. It’s certainly
possible to conduct Bruckner (or Schubert) effectively with reduced forces: Wilhelm Keitel, in a budget
Arte Nova set of Schubert’s symphonies, delivers vigorous and highly persuasive readings with a
chamber orchestra of only 30 or so players. In his earlier recording of the Bruckner Third (reviewed in
33:2), Bolton achieves some truly thrilling results while interpreting a work that has nearly the same
scoring as the Sixth (there’s no bass tuba in the Third). However, I regret to say that Bolton’s
performance of the Sixth here is very disappointing, especially when compared to what other
conductors have accomplished in this music.
Naturally, there are some positives in Bolton’s approach. He starts off better than what is overall the
more satisfying Klemperer (EMI), whose opening string triplets are lax and poorly defined. Bolton’s
slower Adagio (16:33) allows the music more space than the Klemperer or the very straight but wellexecuted Keilberth (Japanese Teldec). Both of those are under 15 minutes; the most eloquent of all is
Wand (live on Profil; see Fanfare 34:1), who logs in at 16:02. On the downside, Bolton’s strings can be
scrappy and their chaste sound lacks warmth. Where Bolton really misses the boat is his failure to
communicate a certain quality that’s heard from Wand, Klemperer, Keilberth, and most other conductors
who’ve recorded this work. Germans call it s chwungvoll (“swingingly; buoyantly; with sweep and
passion”), which is utterly essential for a great Sixth, especially in the first movement’s recapitulation
and its even more dramatic coda. Those passages are among the most astonishing in all of Bruckner
and need to be played to the hilt for maximum effect. Instead, Bolton sorely underplays the grand
moments and thereby miniaturizes them. Of course, the ensemble’s modest size and the damped
Salzburg acoustic might be partly at fault, but I suspect the real culprit is Bolton’s basically lightweight
conception of this work. After all, Bruckner regarded this symphony as his boldest, but what’s heard
here sounds almost inconsequential, a Sixth that makes no sense.
__________________________________________________________________________________
At nearly 89 minutes, Blunier’s Eighth is one of the slowest recordings ever made of Bruckner’s
penultimate symphony. But perhaps Blunier is just a perennial slowpoke; his earlier MDG release of
Bruckner’s “Die Nullte” (aka Symphony No. 0) was also pretty glacial. That performance got a less than
enthusiastic reception from Peter J. Rabinowitz (35:1): “Stefan Blunier’s logy account simply doesn’t
hold up, even with the advantage of solid SACD sound … it all seems excessively drawn out … the
sense of drag comes from a failure to maintain pulse and a sense of direction.” Well, those words could
be lifted verbatim to express my own reaction to Blunier’s Bruckner. Apropos of this Eighth, the first
movement and the Adagio seem to go on forever. Both are played with such cautious deliberation and
metronomic pacing that rigor mortis almost sets in. The Scherzo is fairly energetic, but its Trio is slow
and lethargic. In the finale, Blunier starts off at a fair clip but eventually assumes a plodding gait, with no
attempt to mold or shape phrases convincingly; the coda sounds more tired than triumphant. In short,
too many of this music’s essential ingredients—tension, drama, mystery, and exaltation, to name just
four—are missing. Despite competent execution and fine sound, this is an Eighth that bores when it
should inspire.
It should also be noted that the recent spate of ultra-slow Eighths is a sharp contrast to the way things
were done roughly half a century ago. Out of some 40 recorded Eighths I know of (some studio, but
mostly live) made before 1970, only two—the 1957 Karajan/Berlin (86:59 on EMI) and the 1969
Goodall/BBC (89:20 on BBC Legends)—exceed 86 minutes; most of the others are well under 80 (the
Haas edition suggests a duration of 78 minutes). As to the score used by Blunier, MDG’s error-strewn
booklet notes describe it as “version 1890” but make no mention of which edition. It turns out to be Haas
everywhere save the Adagio, which uses Nowak’s edition. The difference: Haas adds 10 bars patched
in from the original 1887 version; Nowak sticks to the composer’s 1890 revised version. The passage in
question (rehearsal letters X–Y in the Haas score) takes about 40–50 seconds to perform. Those 10
bars would start under Blunier at 20:45 into the Adagio had they been included.
Jeffrey J. Lipscomb
__________________________________________________________________________________
Der Opernfreund
Dez. 2011
MDG 937 1713-6
Sinfonischer Koloss machtvoll getürmt
Wer je Anton Bruckners monumentale Achte Sinfonie als langatmig
empfunden hat, wird in der Wiedergabe durch das Bonner BeethovenOrchester eines besseren belehrt.
MDG 937 1713-6 2 SACD Hybrid Multichannel
Dem Bonner GMD Stefan Blunier (47) gelingt eine Auslegung von großer
Geschlossenheit, was die monumentale Größe und die widerborstigen
Schärfen der Partitur in guter Balance hält. Von kirchlich-katholischen
Überlegungen, von traditioneller Bruckner-Orthodoxie wie das einst der
Bruckner Apostel Eugen Jochum mit seinen von Temperaments-Accelerandi
beflügelten Steigerungsstrecken zelebrierte, hält der Dirigent sich fern. Er
zeigt das rechte Gefühl für Timing und hält sich das weihevoll religiöse Pathos
vom Leib. Bei ihm darf Bruckner natürlich atmen. Und weil die Tempi das
rechte Maß haben, erschienen auch die heiklen Figuren und Themengruppen
in klaren Konturen. Blunier gönnt seinen Zuhörern hymnische Fortissimi, und
es stehen keine ungehobelt heraus knallenden Forteinsätze auf der
Tagesordnung. Wenn die Musik sich in lang gezogenen Steigerungsstrecken
zu den Höhepunkten empor windet, lässt die Intensität bei den
Tonrepetitionen für keinen Augenblick nach.
Wuchtig treibt es Blunier mit dem Maestro aus Sankt Florian schon, ohne dass
vom blechgepanzerten Bonner Orchester gleich Sprengbomben in die Lüfte
der zum baldigen Abriss und Neubau vorgesehenen Beethoven-Halle gejagt
würden. In klarer Diktion schält sich der Grundimpuls der Sinfonie heraus –
__________________________________________________________________________________
die Geburt des Themas mit auftaktiger Sekunde und Spannungen der
Intervalle, aus denen die riesige Architektur in vier Sätzen in leuchtender
Klarheit und Eindringlichkeit wächst. Ohne in Hektik zu geraten, folgt Blunier
den Verästelungen des musikalischen Verlaufs. Mitunter spricht aus den
Übergängen, wo der thematische Zusammenhang oft zu zerbrechen droht,
auch ein grübelnder, depressiver Bruckner.
Ein wenig breit zieht das Adagio schon vorüber. Die expressive Tragkraft
wirkte hier stellenweise überfrachtet, zumal die Streicher ihre Melismen ein
wenig versüßt aussingen. Da Blunier vor einem trefflich disponierten
Orchester steht, muss einem ja nicht bange werden vor nachlassender
Intensität der Streicher oder Atemnot der Blechbläser. Nach den Aufregungen
im Scherzo folgte ein packender sich machtvoll hoch türmender Finalsatz, den
der Dirigent weitbogig disponiert. Bruckners warnende Vorschrift „nicht zu
schnell“ wird ernst genommen. Schließlich gerät die kolossale Coda zu einem
Gipfeltreffen der übereinander geschichteten Haupthemen der Sinfonie.
Die exzellenten Bonner Orchesterleute erweisen sich als ein Ensemble von
gepflegter Aggressivität und fabelhafter Reaktionsfähigkeit. Offen, hell,
klangrund, so stößt das Blech zu. Auch bei den Streichern fällt die sorgfältige
Detailarbeit auf, während die Holzbläser kammermusikalisch geschliffen ihre
Einwürfe spielen. Der Mitschnitt erfolgte in der Beethovenhalle Bonn –
fürwahr kein architektonisches Schmuckstück, und für Konzertbesucher im
allgemeinen kein Hörgenuss. Der Neubau wird hoffentlich nicht allzu lange auf
sich warten lassen. Dass sich von diesen akustischen Stolpersteinen nichts im
Mitschnitt von MDG mitteilt, spricht für die differenziert agierende Tonregie.
„Wir spielen für Dich“ so lautet das alle Musikfreunde einladende Motto des
Orchesters. Wer die Aufnahme wirklich High Definition adäquat hören will,
macht das nicht im zweikanaligen Format sondern hört Bruckners Koloss im
surround sound, am besten 2+2+2 im multichannel sound. Das hebt ab.
Einfach toll!
__________________________________________________________________________________
Nr. 3/2012
MDG 937 1713-6
__________________________________________________________________________________

ANTON BRUCKNER - Beethoven Orchester Bonn

Transcription

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