OT: my next purchase is Bruckner 7, Honeck/Pittsburgh/R.R.

[barryguerrero]

Hi guys and gals. My favorite fully finished Bruckner symphony is the 7th. Just listen to these excerpts with Honeck/Pittsburgh on Reference Recordings. It spite of Bruckner's own tempo markings, I really like the slightly slower, somewhat hypnotic gait of Honeck's tempo for the Scherzo. Conversely, I like how he takes a somewhat fast but still very rhythmic approach to the start of the Finale. I'm definitely getting this! I've always wanted a B7 with really great sound.

I can't wait for Honeck/Pittsburgh to get to Bruckner 5. I think they'll completely reset the table with that one. I have a feeling it'll far out-distance anything that's been recorded for B5 to date.

After Bruckner, maybe Honeck/P.S.O./R.R. will come back to recording Mahler.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9627078--bruckner-symphony-no-7-bates-resurrexit#tracklist

[ChrisH]

Hi guys and gals. My favorite fully finished Bruckner symphony is the 7th. Just listen to these excerpts with Honeck/Pittsburgh on Reference Recordings. It spite of Bruckner's own tempo markings, I really like the slightly slower, somewhat hypnotic gait of Honeck's tempo for the Scherzo. Conversely, I like how he takes a somewhat fast but still very rhythmic approach to the start of the Finale. I'm definitely getting this! I've always wanted a B7 with really great sound.

I can't wait for Honeck/Pittsburgh to get to Bruckner 5. I think they'll completely reset the table with that one. I have a feeling it'll far out-distance anything that's been recorded for B5 to date.

After Bruckner, maybe Honeck/P.S.O./R.R. will come back to recording Mahler.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9627078--bruckner-symphony-no-7-bates-resurrexit#tracklist

I've been chatting recently with one of the trumpet players in the Pittsburgh Symphony, he was very pleased with this recording of the 7th. It's been in the can for over a year now. They also have Schubert 8&9 ready to go. We've also talked a little about Honeck and Mahler. It seems that Manfred Honeck has never conducted the M7.

[barryguerrero]

Thanks for the info. I'd love for Honeck/P.S.O. to go back and make that recording of M6 they had planned to do for Exton.

[Roland Flessner]

Couple nights ago I listened to the Blomstedt/Leipzig B7, a live performance from '06, and I can't offer enough superlatives. Just first class in every way--orchestral execution, SQ, and conducting that lets the music speak for itself. I found myself thinking that it's not just as good as it gets, but as good as it can be, quite a rare sentiment.

I've always loved Blomstedt's Dresden B7, having had the vinyl issue for many years, then finally scoring the CD last year. I need to listen to it again. Jochum/Dresden is another excellent performance though he includes  the now generally discredited cymbals and triangle in the slow movement. I can't remember if Blomstedt used them in Dresden, but he didn't in Leipzig.

I must confess that I have a bee in my bonnet about B4. For me, the horn triplets in the scherzo must be both crisp and prominent, but in many an otherwise excellent recording, they're buried. My first recording was Walter/Columbia SO, which still stands up pretty well (especially for 1960 and a pickup orchestra), and whose horns embarrass a host of other performances. The two more modern recordings I'm aware of with decent horns are Bohm/VPO and Blomstedt/SF. Haitink/RCO (not VPO) is respectable, and Klemperer is not bad. I listened to Blomstedt/Leipzig last night, and while overall it's as good as their B7, the horns in SF are a bit better.

While this is probably a minority view, I also like the original B4 (without the "hunting" scherzo). That version's scherzo has a start-stop quality that I found off-putting at first, though I grew to like its stormy character (no current political reference intended). To me the finale seems more organic and builds to a powerful finish, as opposed to the "mainstream" version where I've always found that the ending is a little hokey and seems tacked on.

[barryguerrero]

That makes sense. While the original Scherzo lacks the pizazz of the revised one (hunting horns), I do feel it matches the rest of the symphony better. For the revised version, I like the Honeck/Pittsburgh one quite a bit. I'm not familiar enough with the fully original version to have a favorite recording. What recording of the fully original B4 would you recommend?

[Roland Flessner]

>>What recording of the fully original B4 would you recommend?

Dennis Russell Davies / Bruckner Orchestra Linz on Arte Nova is outstanding, though apparently currently out of print. I also have Inbal/Frankfurt and Lopez Cobos/Cincinnati which by my (possibly unreliable) recollection were also very good.

[barryguerrero]

Thanks. As an f.y.i., William Carragan passed away. I think he was in his latter 80's.

I like the Dennis Russell Davies recording of the first version of Bruckner 8, also on Arte Nova. I'm just sorry that Russell Davies took such an interest in Philip Glass. That's a rabbit hole I simply can not go into.

[John Kim]

WAIT, I heard they recorded B8th, not 7th??

What's going on?

John

[barryguerrero]

It's definitely B7 that's coming out. It's coupled to modern work (Mason Bates?). You can click on the link I provided.

[Roland Flessner]

OK, having now listened to three recordings of B4 1874, score in hand (thank you, Chicago Public Library):

Inbal and Davies are outstanding. Lopez-Cobos takes II more slowly, c. 20 minutes vs 16 (Davies) and 18 (Inbal). In the 1874 version, II bumps along, rarely rising above mf except at the big eruption toward the end, a long slog. And having endured that, you may be ready for a rollicking and propulsive Bruckner scherzo, only to run into the start-stop effect I mentioned earlier. It's almost as though the composer is playing a cosmic joke on us.

The 1878/80 revision being more audience friendly, with a stronger narrative through line and that brilliant hunting scherzo, I can see where conductors and orchestra managers would be reluctant to program 1874. Thank heavens for recordings, where enthusiasts are free to compare and contrast.

Once we finally arrive at the coda to the 1874 finale, Bruckner blows the roof off the top of the concert hall. Lopez-Cobos seems determined to sabotage the effect, because Bruckner wrote quintuplets alternating between the horns and trombones, creating a savage cross rhythm; JLC turns it into two quarter notes followed by a triplet. Even though that rhythmic pattern features prominently earlier in the symphony, JLC turns something apocalyptic into the merely ordinary.

If you're a serious Bruckner fan, even if 1878/80 will remain your preferred version, you owe it to yourself to hear 1874.

[barryguerrero]

Thanks. I will look for the D.R.D. recording of the first version then.