SACD REVIEWS: BRUCKNER AND TCHAIKOVSKY

posted by James Reel

From a past issue of Fanfare ...

BRUCKNER Symphony No. 8 • Simone Young, cond; Hamburg PO • OEHMS CLASSICS OC 638 (2 multichannel SACDs: 82:41) Live: Hamburg 12/2009

Simone Young has been working her way through a cycle of the very first versions of those Bruckner symphonies that were later heavily revised; her interpretations have been largely effective so far, and this latest installment is no exception. This is the first version, 1878, of Bruckner’s Eighth, an edition that has been issued on disc several times in the past; the most easily available have been Eliahu Inbal/Frankfurt RSO on various Teldec releases (75:35), Georg Tintner/Ireland NSO on Naxos (89:28), and Dennis Russell Davies/Linz Bruckner Orchestra on Arte Nova (80:30). As you can see, Young’s is one of the more leisurely versions of this edition—compared to Inbal, she takes a lot more time in the outer movements—but, without rushing, she always keeps a tight rein on the unruly score, always maintaining a focused through-line, not letting the music break apart into discrete units, and refusing to wallow in the moderate-paced and slow sections. Yet she does allow enough elasticity for the smaller details to emerge along the way. The performance is notable for its clarity and balance of voices, although at the climaxes the woodwinds can’t make themselves heard in competition with the strings and blaring brass.

It’s especially striking how Young illuminates how beholden Bruckner’s first movement is to the opening movement of Beethoven’s Ninth, although the episodic Bruckner lacks Beethoven’s staying power—Bruckner pauses for breath often, whereas Beethoven maintains unbearable tension throughout his movement. At least Young doesn’t let Bruckner sound like he’s stepping off the podium every few bars just to get his heart rate down, which can happen in other performances; she finds natural rhythms in the periodic release of tension.

This version of the first movement, by the way, ends triple forte, not softly. Other major differences between this and later editions: the trio of the second movement is substantially different; the first three movements require only double woodwinds and four horns, the section not expanded until the final movement; the Adagio is 38 bars longer, and includes more cymbal crashes (and a different climactlic key); the Finale is 62 bars longer.

I especially admire Young’s treatment of the Adagio, which is played with clarity and integrity, not soppy piety; she’s very good at holding it together without slighting its internal contrasts.

The SACD surround mix has lots of presence, although there are balance problems at the climaxes, as noted.

Personally, I think most of Bruckner’s later changes to the score actually improved the symphony, but Simone Young and her Hamburg forces make an exceptionally strong case for this original version. James Reel

TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 3, “Polish.” The Voyevoda: Entr’acte; Dance of the Chambermaids. Dmitri the Pretender and Vassily Shuisky: Introduction; Mazurka. Serenade for Nikolai Rubinstein’s Name Day. Eugene Onegin: Entr’acte; Waltz; Polonaise • Neeme Järvi, cond; Gothenburg SO • BIS 1468 (Hybrid multichannel SACD: 76:53)

I was so underwhelmed by the launch of Neeme Järvi’s Tchaikovsky Fifth (see Fanfare 29:2) that I haven’t bothered to follow his Tchaikovsky cycle. But now that I’ve heard his treatment of the “Polish” Symphony, I wonder what I’ve been missing; this performance is terrific.

Although the “Polish” Symphony (named in honor of its Polacca finale) is seldom recorded outside of complete cycles, most conductors who bother with it tend to carry it off quite well; indeed, you’re not likely to go wrong with nearly any major-label recording of the work (aside, suprisingly, from the listless Ormandy on RCA and Gilbert Levine on Telarc). Even so, Järvi’s account ranks among the very best. True, the quick reading of the introduction is hardly a marcia funebre in tempo or spirit, but it carries a high degree of anticipation that is rewarded in the movement’s main matter, which is festive but not manic (a perfect bookend with the quasi-Polish-themed CD’s concluding item, the Onegin Polonaise). There’s a nice, singing delivery of the lyrical sectinos without dragging everything down. Each movement of the symphony is equally well characterized.

The excepts from Tchaikovsky’s very early opera The Voyevoda (not to be confused with the later symphonic poem of the same name, which Järvi has also recorded) includes some delicate woodwind playing from the Gothenburgers, and the dances are full of Russian character. Picking up the Polish theme, the Mazurka from Dmitri the Pretender really does dance with a nice spring, and after all this Järvi’s equally sympathetic treatment of the familiar Onegin items can hardly fail to please.

The BIS sonics, as usual, are absolutely splendid, if you turn up the volume a bit to improve the orchestral presence rather than its loudness; there’s very precise section placement left-to-right and front-to-back, with true timbres and an absolute lack of congestion, even during the moments of big sonic impact at the climaxes and outbursts. James Reel