Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)
From the Archives Volume 4
Symphony No 5 in B flat major, WAB 105 (1878)
String Quintet in F major WAB 112 (1879, Gutman Edition)
Intermezzo for String Quintet, WAB 113 (1879)
Ferdinand Stangler (viola)
Vienna Konzerthaus Quartet
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra/Christoph von Dohnányi
rec. live, 8 December 1963, Funkhaus, Köpenick, Berlin (symphony); 1956, Brahms-Saal, Musikverein, Vienna. AAD
SOMM Ariadne 5031-2 [2 CDs: 124]
SOMM’s fascinating series of archive Bruckner releases now reaches Volume 4 (Volume 1 ~ Volume 2 ~ Volume 3) and it brings a particularly valuable performance from early in the career of Christoph von Dohnányi.
Christoph von Dohnányi was born in 1929, so he would have been 34 at the time he conducted this performance. During his lengthy spell as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra (1984-2002) he recorded several Bruckner symphonies (numbers 3-9) for Decca; this 1963 reading of the Fifth may be his earliest recorded Bruckner performance. It’s a stereo recording, taken from a Berlin Radio aircheck, and this is its first release.
For a long time, I found the Fifth somewhat forbidding, though over the years I’ve come to appreciate its sterling qualities. In his excellent booklet essay Benjamin Korstvedt rightly draws attention to the intellectual and compositional rigour behind the score. It certainly represented a new pinnacle of achievement for Bruckner. For all that the scale of the symphony is so ambitious, the music is tightly organised, not least through the recurrence of thematic cross references; that’s especially obvious at the start of the finale where Bruckner recalls themes from earlier in the symphony in a manner comparable with Beethoven’s ploy at the start of the finale of his Ninth symphony.
I was impressed by Dohnányi’s command of the symphony’s structure. At the start of the first movement the Adagio introduction is taken very spaciously and solemnly. Once the main Allegro is reached, he sets a good lively pace but within that core tempo he also handles the slower episodes very well. In the last minute or so of the movement (from 19:19) Dohnányi drives the music forward at a very fast speed, almost impetuously so; the result is undeniably exciting. That’s in complete contrast to his approach to the Adagio. This is noble and spacious; I very much appreciated the flow that Dohnányi achieves.
He drives the Scherzo along with significant energy; the music sounds exciting. The Trio is imaginatively done and forms an excellent contrast with the Scherzo itself. The huge finale comes off very well. Dohnányi exhibits a grip on the movement’s architecture, knitting together all the various episodes well. I also liked the clarity with which Bruckner’s contrapuntal writing is delivered. The big brass tuttis are suitably imposing. In the last few minutes, the conductor generates significant excitement before delivering a grand summation in the concluding pages.
The Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra plays very well for their guest conductor and the recording reproduces their performance very well. There is some applause at the end, though this is soon faded.
In a shrewd piece of programming, SOMM pairs the huge Fifth symphony with Bruckner’s most significant piece of chamber music. Thus, we get the contrast of experiencing Bruckner writing on a much more intimate scale. It’s also most interesting to hear his work in a piece where grand orchestral tuttis (and contrasting hushed episodes) are not a feature. That’s not to say that the work in question, his String Quintet, is a small piece; in this performance the Quintet plays for some forty-four minutes.
In this Quintet Bruckner added an extra viola to the standard quartet. The first of the four movements is marked Gemäßigt (moderately). The music is graceful and Bruckner’s use of the five string voices is very skilful. The Scherzo that follows is, to be frank, not one of Bruckner’s most interesting essays in the genre. I was interested to learn from the notes that Josef Hellmesberger, at whose prompting Brucker composed the work, stated flatly that the Scherzo was “unplayable”; it’s hard to see why he should have delivered such a verdict.
The Adagio third movement is the heart of the work; for one thing, at 15:55 (in this performance) it accounts for about one-third of the whole work’s duration. It’s a profound and serious bit of writing and here it’s played eloquently. The finale is a much shorter movement. Well though it is played here, it comes as something of an anti-climax after the depths of the Adagio.
I mentioned that Josef Hellmesberger rejected the Quintet’s Scherzo. As an appendix to the performance of the main work, we are given the chance to hear the short (4:30) Intermezzo which, it seems, Bruckner composed as an alterative movement. It’s a modest, elegant little piece. Benjamin Korstvedt suggests that the composer might have “planned it in part as a sly riposte” to Hellmesberger. The movement is not one of Bruckner’s more consequential compositions but its inclusion here is valuable.
The performers on this second CD are the Vienna Konzerthaus Quartet, who are joined by violist Ferdinand Stangler. The Quartet played together between 1934 and 1958; its members were initially members of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra who later all joined the Vienna Philharmonic. Korstvedt suggests that for some listeners “their performance of the Quintet may sound old-fashioned, with its portamentos, lyrical intensity romantic tempos and phrasing. To others, this style of performance epitomises a distinctly Viennese tradition of interpretation, now largely lost, that invests the music with a sincerity of sentiment and a depth of mood that is both rare and striking”. I wouldn’t claim for a second to be any kind of expert when it comes to the Viennese tradition of which he speaks. All I can say is that I found the present performance enjoyable, committed and, above all, authentic. If this style is indeed now largely lost, I think it’s very good that SOMM’s release of these two chamber works on CD allows us to experience it today. The recordings are in mono. They were first released on the Vanguard label (VRS-480); I don’t know if this is the first CD release. The mono sound is good.
Both the chamber recordings and the symphony have come up very well in Lani Spahr’s skilful restoration. His excellent work is a constant feature of this Bruckner from the Archives series. So too is the authoritative writing of Benjamin Korstvedt, whose notes are most interesting.
This is evolving into a significant historical Bruckner series and the latest instalment is very welcome. I assume that the Sixth and Seventh symphonies will be in the next volume.
John Quinn
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