Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)
From the Archives Volume 6
Symphony No 8 in C minor, WAB 108 (1887/92, Nowak Edition)
Psalm 150 WAB 38 (1892)
Symphony No 9 in D minor, WAB 109 (1894, Nowak Edition)
German text and English translation included
SOMM Ariadne 5034-2 [2 CDs: 145]
Here is the last instalment of SOMM’s Bruckner from the Archives series. (Volume 1 ~ Volume 2 ~ Volume 3 ~ Volume 4 ~ Volume 5). By a neat piece of symmetry, this volume includes performances led by two of the conductors whose work we also encountered in Volume 1. Henry Swoboda, who here conducts Psalm 150, was heard in Psalm 112 in Vol. 1; the two recordings in question were part of an LP set issued by Westminster. The other conductor is Eugen Jochum: a live 1959 performance of Symphony No 1 in C minor by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under his direction was the centrepiece of SOMM’s first instalment; here, he leads the same orchestra in a live performance of the composer’s greatest symphony in the key of C minor.
In the booklet, Benjamin Korstvedt reminds us that it was Jochum who made the first commercial recording of the Eighth; that was in 1949. For that recording, he used the edition by Robert Haas but once the Leopold Nowak edition appeared in 1955 Jochum embraced that version and he used it in this performance and in his two commercial recordings. The present live performance predates by some seven years the first of his commercial recordings, the one he made for DG in January 1964. After I’d done my listening and was sitting down to write this review, I came across a review which my colleague Jonathan Woolf wrote some time ago of a 1949 performance – a live performance, not the aforementioned commercial recording, I think – that Jochum gave with the Sinfonieorchester des Hessischen Rundfunks. Jonathan concluded his appraisal with the judgement that the performance in question “offers a view of the younger Jochum, powerfully energised and romantically affiliated.”. By the time of the performance that SOMM had issued the conductor was several years older but, reflecting on what I’d heard and consulting my notes, I concluded that Jonathan’s comment could usefully apply also to this 1957 account with the BRSO.
There’s a good deal of thrust and energy in quite a lot of Jochum’s traversal of the first movement. That’s not to say, though, that he doesn’t shape convincingly and sympathetically those episodes where a broader, more lyrical style is warranted. Taken as a whole, the performance demonstrates his trademark flexibility of tempi in Bruckner. The Scherzo is fast and dynamic; I found it exciting. He shapes the Trio very well. In the great Adagio, Jochum is patient, spacious and dedicated in the way he presents the music. Throughout, he demonstrates impressive control of line and under his guidance the BRSO plays eloquently. Jochum builds the climaxes patiently and when the actual climaxes arrive, they are suitably majestic. There is something of a tendency for the brass – and, more specifically, the trombones – to blare during these climaxes (and at climaxes elsewhere in the work) but I think that’s not a fair reflection of the players but, rather, is down to the recording itself. In any case, the dominance of the brass at these points doesn’t detract from the overall majesty of the performance. From 22:55 the long farewell to the movement has true dignity and a touch of patrician melancholy; these five minutes or so are, arguably, the highlight of the entire performance. The finale storms out of the blocks. Often in what follows, Jochum invests the music with drama and no little urgency; the passage around 5:30 offers such an example. I enjoyed his account of the finale. At 17:42, after a daringly long general pause, the coda begins. Jochum controls the ascent to the final peroration excitingly and majestically, ensuring that the symphony ends as imposingly as it should. Though the performance was live there is no applause at the end. The BRSO plays very well for Jochum; there only are a few very minor fluffs which betray the fact that this is a live performance.
Jochum’s way with Bruckner was famously subjective and, though I respect him very much as a Bruckner conductor, I usually prefer the more objective approach of conductors like Blomstedt or Haitink. That said, this 1957 performance, perhaps energised because it was given live rather than under studio conditions – like his famous 1964 live reading of the Fifth (review) – is very impressive and rewarding. It helps that the recording itself is so good. I expressed earlier a minor reservation about the brass at climaxes. Overall, though, the recording, which derives from a Bavarian Radio aircheck, is amazingly good. There’s excellent space around the sound of the orchestra and you get a really good aural picture of the performance.
In between the two symphonies, SOMM give us a recording of Psalm 150, Bruckner’s last significant sacred choral work. Its inclusion here is appropriate since the composition dates from the period when Bruckner was working on his last two symphonies. We hear it in a commercial recording conducted by Henry Swoboda (1897-1990); as mentioned earlier, this was issued on LP in the 1950s on the Westminster label. In reviewing the recording of Psalm 112 which was included in Volume 1, I commented that the engineers had placed the choir quite forwardly. Unsurprisingly, that’s the case here, too; indeed, they sound almost as if, like a team of soloists, they had been positioned in front of the orchestra. There are downsides to this arrangement; the orchestra can’t be clearly heard and the choir is rather “in your face”. On the other hand, one can appreciate the fervour which the singers of the Vienna Akademie Kammerchor bring to the proceedings. Furthermore, one can hear their words. As the performance got underway, I wondered how easy it might be to distinguish the soprano soloist given the forward placing of the choir, but Hilde Česka’s contribution (from 4:55) is clearly heard. Bruckner’s setting, which is in German, culminates in an extended fugue (from 7:06) on the last line of the Psalm, ‘Alles, was Odem hat, lobe den Herrn, Hallelujah!’ (Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Hallelujah!’) The fugue has a complexity worthy of the finale of the Fifth Symphony. I almost wonder if Bruckner was making a bit of an in-joke here with the reference to “everything that has breath” because the singers need copious amounts of breath to cope with the composer’s frankly unreasonable demands. The choir’s lines are stretching in the extreme, especially in the soprano and tenor parts; all the singers are simply heroic, especially the sopranos. The recorded sound may not be the greatest, but this performance, which Benjamin Korstvedt describes as “pioneering” earns its place in this series; it’s valuable to have it.
SOMM end their Bruckner survey with an account of the Ninth Symphony led by Wolfgang Sawallisch. This particular performance was given during the first evening concert of the 1966 Wiener Festwochen and I learned from the booklet that it was given in the same hall, the Großer Saal of the Musikverein, where Ferdinand Löwe gave the premiere of the symphony in 1903; furthermore, it was the 1903 incarnation of the Vienna Symphony that gave the premiere. Sawallisch had become principal conductor of the VSO in 1960; I believe he retained that post for ten years. Though this recording is of a public concert the audience is commendably quiet until they applaud at the end.
Sawallisch displays a firm grip on the structure of the enigmatic first movement. He is urgent in the build-up to climaxes; overall, this is quite a dramatic reading. The performance of the Scherzo is very dynamic, the rhythms sharply pointed. The Trio scampers along nicely. Sawallisch’s reading of the finale is a good one, even if it isn’t among the most searching I’ve heard. He does the last five or six minutes (including the cataclysmic last climax) successfully. Unfortunately, the recorded sound, which derives from an Austrian Radio broadcast, isn’t as good as the sound that the Bavarian Radio engineers achieved for Jochum nine years earlier. The Vienna orchestra is recorded more closely and there isn’t the same degree of space around the sound. This has some consequences; the climaxes are somewhat overbearing and also at times, such as the hushed ending of the Adagio, the orchestra is put under scrutiny that is a bit too close. The Vienna Symphony plays well for Sawallisch but I don’t think the standard of playing is at quite the same level as we experience with the BRSO under Jochum. Their performance of the Eighth is, for me, the highlight of this set.
Across the six volumes, this has been a most rewarding series from SOMM; I’ve enjoyed following it. All the performances have been interesting and valuable. Most of the performances have either been new to CD (as I think may be the case with Psalm 150 in this volume) or completely new to the catalogue; that’s the case with the two symphony performances in this last instalment. For all this, Bruckner collectors will be very grateful. There have been two constants throughout the series, both of which are apparent again in Volume Six. One has been the absorbing booklet essays by Benjamin Korstvedt, from which I’ve learned a great deal. The other has been the highly skilled audio restoration work of Lani Spahr; once again in this set, he has worked wonders.
All the recordings in this series have been sourced from the archive of John F Berky who is the Executive Secretary of the Bruckner Society of America. Bruckner collectors who have acquired the discs in this series are indebted to him. In the booklet, we learn that the archive in question contains over 12,000 Bruckner recordings. I just wonder if there is scope for Lani Spahr and SOMM to dig further into this treasure trove,
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Performer and recording details:
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Eugen Jochum (No 8)
Hilde Česka (soprano); Vienna Akademie Kammerchor; Vienna Symphony Orchestra/Henry Swoboda (Psalm)
Vienna Symphony Orchestra/Wolfgang Sawallisch (No 9)
rec. live 21 November 1957, Herkulessaal, Residenz, Munich (No 8); October-November 1950, Vienna (Psalm 150); live 22 May 1966, Großer Saal, Musikverein, Vienna (No 9)
