bruckner lexicon

7/30/2019 Bruckner Lexicon

1/4

The Recording History of Anton Bruckners SymphoniesA submission to the Bruckner-Lexikon by John F. Berky

June 9, 2009

While Anton Bruckners orchestral music was not heavily represented at the dawn ofrecording, it did receive its first commercial recording as early as 1924 when Polydor

recorded the Adagio of the Bruckner 8th

with Otto Klemperer and the Berlin State OperaOrchestra. Polydor can also claim the first complete recording of a Bruckner symphony

when Oskar Fried led the same orchestra in the Symphony No. 7. Prior to the 1930s,

Jascha Horenstein led the Berlin Philharmonic in the second recording of the Seventh

Symphony. In the 1930s Polydor began to offer recordings led by Carl Schuricht. Thefirst release was a Seventh Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic. During the war, they

recorded the Ninth Symphony with the same ensemble.

The 1930s also brought the landmark recording of the Bruckner 9th

with Siegmund von

Hausegger leading the Munich Philharmonic in the newly published Alfred Orel edition.EMI entered the field with recordings of the 4

th& 5

thSymphonies with Karl Boehm

conducting the Saxon State Orchestra and recordings led by Oswald Kabasta and

Wilhelm Furtwangler.

Deutsche Grammophons first offerings featured Eugun Jochum conducting the 3rd

, 4th

Symphonies with the Hamburg State Orchestra and the 7th Symphony with the Vienna

Philharmonic.

It is interesting to note that most of these historic recordings have remained in the catalog

to this day.

During the war, the National Socialist Partys fascination with Bruckner led to many

interesting recordings, including a versuchaufname of a stereo recording with a young

Herbert von Karajan conducting the Prussian State Orchestra in 1944. While the entiresymphony was recorded for radio, only the Finale was recorded in stereo. The recording

was commercially released after the war.

The length of Bruckners symphonies were well suited for the advent of the LP in 1948,but it took several years for his music to be represented. Many of the earlier releases were

transferred to LP, but not many new recordings were released. Of these early original LP

releases, most came from radio recordings. These included performances by Walter

Goehr, Gerhard Pflueger, Henk Spruit, Eduard van Beinum, Georg Ludwig Jochum andHermann Abendroth. Amadeo released three recordings from Volkmar Andreaes

historic Bruckner cycle recorded by RAVAG, the Austrian Radio. That important 1953cycle is finally being offered to the public as a complete set in 2009.

As early as the mid fifties, the first pseudonominous recordings of Bruckner symphonies

were offered when Allegro Records offered a Bruckner 3rd

conducted by Gerd Rubahn


2/4

and a 4th

conducted by Jan Hubbs. To this date, both recordings have not been positively

identified.

The advent of stereo in the mid 50s was another technological advance that would

benefit the reception of Bruckners music. By the 1960s record companies were issuing

everything in stereo and the first complete cycles of Bruckners symphonies were issued.Eugen Jochum produced the first commercially available Bruckner cycle for Deutsche

Grammophon, and only a few years later Bernard Haitink had completed his cycle with

the Concertgebouw Orchestra for Philips. His cycle added the Die Nullte Symphony.Haitink was part of a new generation of conductors that would soon offer many new

recordings to the public. Deccas rising star, Georg Solti embarked on a cycle with the

Vienna Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony. Eurodisc released the Kurt Masurcycle with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Electrecord released a lesser publicized

complete cycle conducted by Christian Mandeal.

During the 1960s another series of recordings was produced that, to this day, creates a

great deal of confusion regarding the performers involved. The recordings were producedor acquired by Alfred Scholz using an ensemble named the South German Philharmonic.

The musicians were mostly members of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and the thendefunct Prague German Philharmonic and Scholz commissioned conductors to record a

wide range of repertoire for licensing arrangements. For this series, Scholz recorded

Bruckners symphonies 2. 4, 5, 6 and 9. These recording have appeared on countlessbudget labels with fictitious or in-correct names of conductors. They continue to be

issued on CD to this day. The most infamous of these recordings is the Symphony No. 9

which (due to an error in mastering) has been repeatedly issued with movement IIIfollowed by movement II followed by movement III again. It appears that the tape

containing the first movement was never processed to a released recording and is nowpresumed to be lost. The III-II-III recording has appeared on LP, cassette, and CD for

over 40 years.

In the mid-eighties, Teldec released a pioneering series of recordings by producing acycle of symphonies (including the early Symphonies in F and D Minor) conducted by

Eliahu Inbal that included the first versions (as edited for the MWV by Leopold Nowak)

of the Symphonies No. 3, 4 and 8. This cycle also included an early edition of theBruckner Symphony No. 9 Finale as prepared by Nicola Samale and Giuseppe Mazzuca.

Melodiya Records followed suit by releasing an interesting cycle with Gennadi

Rozhdestvensky that incorporated several versions of the Symphonies No. 1, 3, and 4 andthe Samale / Mazzuca Bruckner 9

thFinale. Earlier, Chandos Records released a

recording of the Bruckner 9th

that included a completion of the Finale by William

Carragan. That had been preceded by a semi-private recording issued by the UtrechtSymphony Orchestra of the European premiere of the Bruckner 9

thFinale in the Carragan

Edition.

In 1982 the Compact disc was introduced. The dynamic range of digital recordings wasanother great vehicle for Bruckners music and companies were quick to capitalize on

this. Herbert von Karajans DGG cycle was completed with digital recordings, Eugen


3/4

Jochum released a 2nd cycle with the Dresden Staatskapelle for EMI and DGG released

its third cycle with Daniel Barenboim conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Todate the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is the only American orchestra to record a

complete Bruckner symphony cycle.

Production of compact discs allow for significantly lower start up costs for thecommercial release of a recording over that of an LP. Because of this the number of CD

releases grew dramatically as more CD pressing plants were built. With a lower break-

even point, companies could release recordings with lower sales volume than their LPcounterparts. Bruckner recording began to be released in greater numbers. Deutsche

Grammophon came close to releasing an entire Bruckner cycle with Giuseppe Sinopoli

but it was cut short by the conductors untimely death. Riccardo Chaillys cycle wasreleased by Decca Records, Georg Tintners cycle for Naxos was released which

incorporated the 1866 version of the Symphony No. 1 and the first versions of the

Symphonies No. 2 & 3 and the first recording of the Second Adagio to the Symphony

No. 3 and the Volkfest Finale to the Symphony No. 4.

Gunter Wands cycle of the Symphonies 1-9 with the Cologne Radio Symphony

Orchestra was released by Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and RCA. When he moved to theNDR Symphony, recordings of the Symphonies No. 3-9 were released and their critical

acclaim led to a series of live recordings with the Berlin Philharmonic. Symphonies

4,5,7,8 and 9 were released and a performance of the Symphony No. 6 was planned butWand died before the project could be realized.

The Romanian conductor, Sergiu Celeibidache was legendary not only because of hisunique performances but for his avoidance of recordings. This combination lead to the

creation of a cult following that spawned a huge catalog of pirate recordings.Paradoxically, Celibidaches performances are perhaps the most recorded because of the

legion of private recordings made at his concerts. To properly preserve his legacy and to

insure a degree of technical quality, Celibidaches family permitted the release of a series

of recordings that included performances of the Symphonies 3-9 with the MunichPhilharmonic (for EMI) and the Symphonies 3-5 and 7-9 with Stuttgart & Swedish Radio

Symphony Orchestras (for DGG)

While most of the recording activity for Bruckner was centered in Europe, a conductor in

Japan was gaining international recognition as a Bruckner conductor and the Japanese

recording industry was intent on documenting his progress. Takashi Asahina lived to be93 years old. In 1947 he founded what would become the Osaka Philharmonic and

remained its music director until his death in 2001. Asahina was a champion of

Bruckners music and during his career he recorded four complete cycles, two semicycles and numerous individual recordings. The Japanese venerated Asahina and as he

entered into his nineties, virtually every performance was recorded and released. It has

also spawned a deep love of Bruckners music in Japan and it has led to the release of a

growing number of recordings so much so that the recording of Bruckners music inJapan may have outpaced the activity in Europe.


4/4

In addition to the complete and semi-cycles issued on CD, there have been hundreds of

individual performances that have been offered to the public since the mid 80s. Manyhave taken on legendary status, such as the Jochum Bruckner 5

threcorded at Ottobeuren,

the Giulini, Karajan and Boehm recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic, Gunter

Wands recordings with the Berlin Philharmonic and Otto Klemperers Bruckner 6th

with

the Philharmonia Orchestra. There are many others but we quickly run out of space andinto the dangerous realm of individual preferences.

As we move into the present day, technological advances continue to shape the way inwhich music is presented and consumed. The biggest change to hit the recording

industry is the phenomenal growth of music downloads. While the downloading of

music is presently best suited for individual songs, it does work for long form music aswell. At present, most music downloads are done in conjunction with a CD release of the

same material, so the discographer still has a tangible object tabulate. But gradually,

some recordings are being offered that do not have a CD counterpart. Since the recording

has been offered to the public, it needs to be listed, but there is no tangible product to

describe. With regards to Bruckner, the Symphonies 4, 6 and 7 performed by AndreasDelfs and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra are a perfect example. They are available

for sale on the orchestras website and other download services such as I-tunes, but notavailable on CD. The same holds true for the recordings available on the Philadelphia

Orchestras website. Discographers must accept and list these offers as they would a CD

but then there is the question of temporal downloads temporary offers by radio stationsor performing organizations. These recordings may only be available for a few days so

they tend to be more of a broadcast than a download. But a line must be drawn as to when

an offered download is considered a public release.

Another technological development is the issue of piracy. Due to the high start up costsfor pressing an LP, there was not much in the way of pirate recordings before the advent

of the CD. The biggest exception was the wartime performances by Wilhelm

Furtwaengler and the Berlin Philharmonic that were issued on private labels and via the

international Furtwaengler Societies. With the CD and especially the recordable CD(CDR), a substantial pirate industry has arisen. At present, most of these pirate CDs are

originating from Japan and Hong Kong. Most of them state that they are made in the EU

or the USA, but they are originating from the orient. Most of these are recordings ofrecent concert broadcasts and they are released within weeks of the transmission. Again,

this raises a question for discographers regarding the listing of these recordings. While

some choose to ignore these illegal releases, others list them in an effort to provide apoint of reference if someone has a question about the recordings availability or very

existence.

bruckner lexicon

Documents