Bruckner: Complete Symphonies [George Tintner] [Naxos: 8501205]

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The second symphony is in the same key as the first, though slightly darker. The 1872 version has Tintner’s wonderful recording on Naxos to recommend it. If you are wedded to Haas then Haitink’s 1966 recording is excellent (but strangely,of the symphonies, this is still not available as part of the Philips Duo series, which means one has to turn to the box- set). Wand’s 1981 version with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra is not quite as convincing. If Haas is not an issue then Guilini’s recording with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra (1974) available on Testament, is without doubt a firm recommendation. Inbal,Frankfurt .Teldec. Excellent performance of the radically different original, with a completely different scherzo instead of the familiar hunting one. Abbado’s reading of the vast first movement is in time but not entirely of it. On occasion the pulse hangs by a thread. Yet it is a thread that never breaks, like a life that has peaks yet to climb before it makes its quietus. I'm least familiar with 5 but rather like Wand/NDRSO and posting this reminds me that I'm overdue for another go, perhaps with Skrowaczewski/SRSO this time, which I don't think I've heard since shortly after I bought it! 6--Horst Stein & the WP; 7--HvK BP or WP; 8-HvK/WP (Boulez is overdue for re-evaluation, however); 9--Giulini/WP.

Claudio Abbado, VPO. Decca. I haven't heard his DG remake with the same orchestra, but this is the version I got to know this puzzlingly neglected symphony. Perhaps the greatest of all recordings of the work, spacious, involved, profoundly human. So persuasive is Giulini’s interpretation, it makes it almost impossible to take seriously the attempt at a more detached, monumental approach found in Daniel Barenboim’s more recent Teldec performance. Giulini’s ability to convey fervour without sentimentality is little short of miraculous, and it’s clear from the way the early stages of the first movement effortlessly project an ideal balance between the lyrical and the dramatic that this reading will be exceptional. The recording might not have the dynamic range of current digital issues, and resonance can sound rather artificial in louder passages. There’s also an obtrusive extension of the trumpet triplets seven bars before the end of the first movement. But such things count for less than nothing in the face of a performance which culminates in a finale of such glowing spontaneity you could almost believe that the orchestra are playing it for the first time, and that neither they (nor any other orchestra) will ever play it better. I believe I mentioned once that I experienced LIVE (front-row center) in the Cathedral in Speyer the Ninth conducted (in 1972) by Celebidache with the Stadtsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz. He had to take it pretty slowly because of the echo! The Scherzo was mind-blowing---a wonderful experience! Ultimately, I would not claim that this is a performance to displace the classic accounts of the work – Furtwängler (1942), Georg Ludwig Jochum (1944), Eugen Jochum (1958), Konwitschny (1961), Schuricht (1963), Horenstein (1971), to name just a few I should hate to live without – but they are mainly in dated or less-than-perfect sound. The only truly great Fifth I know of in first class modern sound is by Takashi Asahina on a very expensive Japanese import disc.This is hardly recognizable if you know the familiar version, except for the use of the same basic thematic material. Järvi offers an extremely beautiful performance, responsively played and, most crucially, sensitive to key transitions. There are many subtleties, while the finale’s angrily strutting second set will have your woofers quaking. Incidentally, in Järvi’s Adagio those hymn-like string chords are mightily sonorous and the no-holds-barred climax – with percussion this time – is extremely effective though the ritardando 'in' is perhaps a mite excessive.

In short, while those earlier Columbia recordings have been superseded by later digital renderings, they remain on my playlist as pioneering efforts with superb musicianship and excellent sound for the day that stands up well against their digital counterparts. The score calls for a pair each of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and strings. This, the first published edition of the symphony, was prepared by Cyrill Hynais and was until recently thought to be inauthentic, but Carragan has shown that it corresponds closely to the 1877 version. This first edition was performed on 25 November 1894 by the Vienna Philharmonic under Hans Richter. Marek Janowski with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande - Pentatone Classics SACD PTC 5186 448, 2012

I think Karajan is tops in the seventh, and while I like his VPO recording on DG, my preference is again for the one on EMI with the BPO. In his distinguished booklet essay, the Italian writer and broadcaster Oreste Bossini speaks of the performance’s polyphonic transparency and the naturalness and fluidity of its pacing. Even in the Karajan/BPO/DG. Tintner/Irish National Orch, Naxos. The much longer original, with scherzo first and adagio second. Interesting, but not quite as structurally coherent. Nowak edition (1965): this edition still contains residues of the Haas' "mixed version" - among others an error in the trumpet parts at the end of the first movement: [10] You said you have Karajan, and both his EMI/BPO and DG/VPO recordings are among the best. You may also want to try Matacic/Czech Philharmonic for a more aggressive approach.

Over the years, I've acquired lots of alternate versions, notably Wand/Cologne, but have never been impressed with Wand's "swan song" Berlin recordings, which, to my ears, sound weak and uncontrolled. Instead, I've been impressed with the following: We have been writing about classical music for our dedicated and knowledgeable readers since 1923 and we would love you to join them. Erich Schmid conducting the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra, studio recording, 1965, Ampex [12] Some of it has to do with the differences between European and American brass instruments. European instruments are constructed in such a way as to "burnish", or take the sharp edges off the sound whereas American instruments usually sound harsher. I read somewhere that to a certain extent the differences in sound is caused by the differences between rotary valved and piston valved instruments.Georg Tintner conducting the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, 1996 (using a pre-publ. Carragan ed.), Naxos

I agree with the recommendation for Karajan and the VPO for the eigth, only I think the live performance they gave about a decade earlier that's out on a DG DVD is even better.Future installments of Tintner's cycle, I gather, will include some relative rarities, such as William Carragan's edition of the 1872 (first) version of the 2 nd, currently only available in the Camerata set under Eichhorn. I agree that the BPO does a wonderful job in the fourth, but I would go with the Jocum/DG and Karajan/EMI recordings that they made. I prefer the former for a more aggressive approach, and the latter is IMO better than the Bohm/VPO recording for something a bit slower and more reverential in approach. He paces this performance with an extreme sureness of step; in fact it builds inevitably from the plodding downward tread of the opening double bass line, to the magnificent culmination of the finale. IMHO, there has not been a IV yet made to top Bruno Walter's excellently paced and recorded version.