BRUCKNER THIRD AND A MASS
posted by James Reel
Have I posted these two reviews I wrote for Fanfare? This site still has no search function (nor a blogroll or provision for a sidebar of links of any kind), so I'm not sure what's here already and what's not. Well, even if you've read these two Bruckner reviews, they probably haven't stuck in your brain, so here you go:
BRUCKNER Symphony No. 3 (1873 version) * Simone Young, cond; Hamburg PO * OEHMS OC 624 (hybrid multichannel SACD: 68:38)
Simone Young is recording the earliest versions of Bruckner’s first four symphonies, plus the Eighth. I was very impressed by her traversal of the Second, although the score itself does not rise to Young’s level of interpretation (see Fanfare 31:3). The Third, the so-called “Wagner” Symphony, is a more satisfactory score, although I must admit that I prefer the later, trimmer editions. The 1873 original, with its Wagner quotations intact, is given to bloat, and the Adagio is simply unmemorable. That said, Young makes a good case for this edition in an increasingly crowded field. This performance is very slow overall, about the same as Nagano’s, but not as expansive as the unusual Tintner (I’m restricting my comparisons to recordings of the 1873 version). The first movement is especially drawn out, and I may eventually decide that it’s too lugubrious for my taste, but at the moment I appreciate Young’s patience, which makes the music ruminative without dragging, and shows proper respect for the rests. The Adagio, despite its inherent defects, is well paced. The scherzo shows off the orchestra’s powerful brass—the section plays with lots of punch here, less elsewhere—contrasted with the grace of the strings and woodwinds in the trio section. The same remarks hold for Young’s traversal of the final movement. The DSD-recorded acoustic is big enough to accommodate the orchestra and its climaxes, but the score does not flounder in cathedral reverberation.
This is a very fine version of the 1873 edition. Robert McColley praised the Douglas Nott recording in 28:6; I haven’t heard it, but I’m cautious, not having found much interest in Nott’s Schubert. McColley also approves of the Nagano performance (28:3), while expressing a preference for Tintner (which, unlike the others mentioned, is not a surround-sound SACD). Peter Rabinowitz warns us away from the Marcus Bosch effort in 31:2. At the moment, I’m quite happy with Simone Young. James Reel
BRUCKNER Mass No. 2. Os justi. Virga Jesse. Locus iste. Afferentur regi. Ave Maria (1861). Christus factus est. Pange lingua * Marcus Creed, cond; SWR Vocal Ens, Stuttgart * HÄNSSLER 93.199 (hybrid multichannel SACD: 65:29)
Bruckner’s Mass No. 2, for chorus accompanied by winds, has received relatively few recordings in recent years, although the smaller motets have fared better. There’s a newish recording of the Mass from Stephen Layton and Polyphony on Hyperion, which I haven’t heard and has not been reviewed in Fanfare at this writing; Robert McColley is very fond of a Carus motet collection conducted by Hans-Christoph Redemann, and had praise for an MDG SACD with Petr Fiala directing Czech forces (see Fanfare 30:4). My own standard for all the Bruckner choral music is the old Jochum set on DG, which seems to be currently available only as a two-pack containing the three Masses, but none of the other choral music that were included in the four-CD version; 10 motets, Psalm 150 and the popular Te Deum are relegated to a separate disc.
On the disc at hand, fleshing out the rather early Mass with some of Bruckner’s early and mature motets, Marcus Creed leads performances that are consistently a bit faster than Jochum’s (except in Pange lingua), but are still slow and devotional. Jochum, overall, is the more dramatic interpreter. Creed, being English, draws a fairly white tone from what sounds to be a mid-sized German choir, but not at the expense of expressive warmth. The choir is well blended, even if some of the writing is skewed to the top voices. The one drawback is that there isn’t much variety among the six motets that begin the disc, which leads to just a little tedium. The surround sound is flattering to the singers, without drawing attention to itself in any way—a hallmark of the SWR engineers. This is a well-performed collection in modern sound, but I’ll stick with the old Jochum when I’m in more of a mood for action than contemplation. James Reel
