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09/14/2024
From the Archives Volume 3
Anton Bruckner: Symphony n° 3 in D minor, WAB 103 (1878, Oeser edition) [1] – Symphony n° 4 in E‑Flat major “Romantic”, WAB 104 (1878/80, Haas edition) [2]
NDR Symphony Orchestra [1], Munich Philharmonic [2], Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt [1], Volkmar Andreae [2] (conductor)
Live recording: Musikhalle, Hamburg, Germany (aircheck, December 12, 1966) [1], & Herkulessaal, WDR, Munich, Germany (Bayerischer Rundfunk aircheck, January 15, 1958) [2] – 117’17
Somm Recordings – Ariadne 5029‑2
 
Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt was hardly the most dynamic or insightful conductor of his generation, but this Bruckner Third finds him in good form on the podium of the Hamburg radio orchestra he led for many years. This is recognizably modern Bruckner, with steady tempos and poised rhythms, but happily, not mechanical or stiffly phrased. There is plenty of dynamic contrast and lyrical warmth where it is required. But the playing, while more than competent, is hardly virtuosic, and the whole affair is constrained by a thin, colorless recording that suggests a broadcast date of 1956 rather than 1966. A listenable and even enjoyable Third, then, but I don’t hear anything interesting or unusual enough to compensate for the lackluster playing and sound.
The Fourth is another matter. The Swiss Volkmar Andreae was a dedicated Brucknerian for decades before the composer became accepted widely outside Austria, but his recorded legacy in this repertoire has consisted primarily in a series of airchecks from the early 1950s with the Vienna Symphony. These had the benefit of some charmingly old‑fashioned and songful playing of orchestra, which was in technically ragged shape at the time; intonation can be a problem, and there are moments of poor ensemble. Here, live from Munich in 1958, Andreae has the benefit of strikingly more vivid and open recorded sound—much better than what we heard in the later Third from Hamburg, in fact—and a better orchestra, if not a world‑class one, and without the special Viennese tonal and phrasing qualities of the earlier recordings.
Andreae belonged to the Furtwängler school of Bruckner conducting: lots of conspicuous rubato, highly molded phrasing, and more drama than mystery. It’s not my ideal approach to the composer and has not been the norm for decades, but done well it can certainly be compelling, and Andreae knew how to do it well. He is less turbulent and anxious than Furtwängler but more lyrical than Eugen Jochum. I don’t think the Fourth, which is less obviously cohesive than most of the later symphonies and whose most inspired passages tend to be mysterious or pastoral, is the best illustration of his virtues. Here, he conspicuously rushes in climaxes and tuttis; mysterious passages (such as the first movement development) don’t have as much impact as they could; and the composer’s sometimes abrupt transitions feel more abrupt than they need to. But the purely lyrical moments of the score are imbued with a rare poignance, and there is enough of this to lend the rougher aspects of the interpretation an air of endearing enthusiasm. This is Bruckner as a more impulsive kind of Romantic, almost a Schumann, and Andreae is so musical and committed in giving us this picture of the composer that it’s easy to forgive the occasional awkwardness that results. The interpretation is not noticeably different from the one he gave in Vienna a few years earlier, but—the relative lack of Viennese style here notwithstanding—it’s nice to hear it in better sound and with surer execution.
There is no shortage of satisfying Bruckner Fourths, and Andreae’s would not make my short list of favorites, but it has its rewards, and this Munich version makes a good supplement to the conductor’s Vienna cycle on Music & Arts for those who enjoy the latter. This rather than the Schmidt-Isserstedt Third would be the reason to buy this Somm set.
Samuel Wigutow
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