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12/06/2024
Bruckner: From the Archives Volume 6
Anton Bruckner: Symphony n° 8 in C minor, WAB 108 (Nowak edition) [1] – Te Deum, WAB 45 [1] – Psalm 150, WAB 38 [2] – Symphony n° 9 in D minor, WAB 109 (1894, Nowak edition) [3]
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Eugen Jochum (conductor) [1]; Hilde Ceska (soprano), Vienna Akademie Kammerchor, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Henry Swoboda (conductor) [2]; Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch (conductor) [3]
Recording: Herkulessaal, Residenz, Munich, Germany (live) (November 21, 1957) (BR aircheck) [1]; Vienna, Austria (October-November 1950) (Westminster LP, XWN 18075) [2]; Grosser Saal, Musikverein, Vienna, Austria (live) (May 22, 1966) (ORF broadcast tape, SCR aircheck) [3] – 145’19
Somm Recordings – Ariadne 5034-2
 
One can’t, as a rule, judge a performance by tempo; indeed, I often hardly register the tempo per se of the best performances, and the failure of the worst is seldom due primarily to tempo choices. Nor have I any truck with the notion sometimes implied by critics (and stated outright by no less an authority than Weingartner) that there is a single ideal tempo for a given work. The perception of too fast or too slow often depends on such extraneous factors as phrasing, articulation, accent, and even texture. All the same, the character of certain pieces seems at least to suggest a range of tempos, and for me the first movement of the Bruckner Eighth is an example: I have seldom heard a really convincing rendition in less than fifteen minutes. The Eighth is Bruckner’s most perfectly realized and integrated symphony, at least in terms of dramatic arc between movements, and this first movement’s half‑shades, foreboding, and even tentativeness are lost when it is presented as a driving Beethovenian allegro. Jochum here, characteristically for him, takes not even fourteen minutes.
Not only does his basic tempo give the music little space to breathe, it gives him little leeway to indulge his penchant for stepping on the gas during the sequences and other repetitious passages that call for a slow‑burn if the music is not to feel obsessive and neurotic. Furtwängler had this penchant too, but he also brought a greater expressive gravitas in compensation. In Jochum’s hands, both this movement and the second come off as more harried than gripping or exciting, an impression not helped by the slightly muddy mono broadcast sound. The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra plays very well, in keeping with its reputation as the finest of Germany’s many radio orchestras, but as recorded here, it sounds less than ideally weighty or lustrous.
Jochum slows down considerably for the third movement, all to the good. Here, he finally gets inside the music, in all its glory, and one can hear a sensitivity that vindicates his stature as a distinguished Brucknerian. He’s still not my ideal interpreter of this music; as powerful as the great climax of this movement is here, it would have been more so without the acceleration leading up to it. But the last two movements sound more deeply considered (and therefore moving) overall than the first two. As you will have guessed, I am not exactly a connoisseur of Jochum’s Bruckner, but it seems to me that this previously unreleased aircheck is superfluous for all but the conductor’s most ardent admirers. His most widely available recordings of this work, with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Staatskapelle Dresden, present (as far as I know) more or less the same interpretation realized by magnificent orchestras and in stereo, and two alternatives–an early studio recording from Hamburg and a much later live recording with the Bamberg Symphony–benefit from slower and perhaps better controlled tempos. I would recommend the Bamberg version for its greater patience and satisfying modern broadcast sound.
Sawallisch’s Ninth, taped about a decade later, enjoys slightly more vivid sound (still mono, though) and the wonderful Austrian colors of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, no match for the more famous Vienna ensemble but on good behavior here, except for some scrambling in the second movement and coarse string tone at points in the third. Sawallisch was a variable conductor, in general and in those of his later Bruckner studio recordings I’ve heard, and the stiffness of the first passage for violins in the first movement (leading up to the initial tutti) made me wary. But fortunately this was not a harbinger for the rest of the performance, which steers an impressive balance between flexibility and propulsion and features some beautifully characterized solo wind playing. Not the most monumental or virtuosic Ninth, but this work, especially in the standard three-movement version (sans reconstructed finale), is Bruckner at his grimmest, and there’s plenty of warmth here to take the edge off without underplaying anything. It’s the best thing in this underwhelming Somm series since Volkmar Andreae’s Munich Fourth, another performance that is not quite one for the ages but still has plenty to say for itself.
I seem to be running out of space to comment on the Psalm 150 that fills out this set, an obscure studio recording from the dawn of the LP era, but I can note that it features the same Vienna orchestra as the Ninth, again in good form and offering lots of lyrical charm, and some occasionally wobbly but always enthusiastic choral singing, of a piece with the other Austrian choirs heard in this series.
Samuel Wigutow
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