(++++) THE PLUSES OF ZERO

Bruckner: Symphony No. 0. Altomonte Orchester St. Florian conducted by Rémy Ballot. Gramola. $24.99 (SACD).

     The peculiarity of the decade-long sequence in which Rémy Ballot’s Bruckner cycle was performed and released resulted in an open question regarding “Die Nullte,” the symphony often referred to as “No. 0” even though it was composed after No. 1. Ballot conducted one Bruckner symphony per year with the Altomonte Orchester St. Florian beginning in 2013, with the exception of 2020 – a pandemic-related interruption of the project. The resulting sequence was: No. 3, No. 8, No. 9, No. 6, No. 5, No. 7, No. 2, No. 4, and No. 1. That appeared to be the end of things, the releases concluding at the end of 2023, just in time for the Bruckner bicentennial. But it turns out that Ballot’s series was to include “No. 0” after all, with a performance from August 2023 now released by Gramola within the bicentennial year.

     This is a particularly welcome disc, since “No. 0” really does belong in the symphonic sequence even though the composer declared it “nullified” (but, interestingly, did not destroy it, as he did some other works he came to regard as unworthy). And Ballot, by approaching this D minor symphony in the same way as the nine numbered ones, clearly demonstrates its value within the group.

     Ballot’s handling of Bruckner has everywhere been broad, wide, majestic, and expansive, favoring slow tempos and massed sound that nevertheless offers clarity of middle voices and individual sections. “No. 0” is less affected by this approach than some others in the Ballot sequence: it runs 52 minutes, making it an outlier among recorded performances, but not by much – other conductors’ versions last from 42 to 48. But if the difference in timing is not substantial, the difference in feeling is. The immediate very slow pacing as the first movement begins creates a sound that is closer to that of the later symphonies. The work’s very opening is not so much a theme as a pulse – one reason Bruckner, after being criticized on that very basis, turned his back on the symphony. Under Ballot’s direction, though, the opening has the effect of establishing an environment, after which the lyrical thematic material that follows flows particularly well. True, the pacing eventually becomes glacial midway through the movement, sounding more like Impressionistic scene-painting than symphonic structure. But just after the sense of cloudlike meandering slows everything to a near-halt, Ballot picks matters up nicely and builds the succeeding section, just prior to the recapitulation, with power as well as beauty. The orchestral playing is first-rate throughout, with the movement’s conclusion featuring especially impressive brass and timpani.

     The second movement is warm and sweet, featuring more scenic elements. At the start it is not really Andante, as marked, but closer to Adagio. Here the strings excel in mood-setting and their fullness is highly welcome. The pacing then picks up pleasantly, and woodwind touches are well-handled. The ebb and flow of sound is nicely managed: this movement is not deeply felt, being more pretty than profound, but Ballot finds plenty of sweetness and emotion in it. The evanescent strings near the end are quite moving in their quiet flow: Ballot has an especially good sense of the ending of the movement.

     For the third movement, Ballot opts for strong rhythms and a solidly quick pace. In fact, here he is speedier than several other conductors, proving, if proof were needed, that his generally slow pacing throughout his cycle flows from carefully conceptualizing every movement of every symphony. Ballot carefully distinguishes the Trio from the Scherzo: he looks for and finds lyrical beauties that tie Bruckner's thematic concepts and their working-out to the influence of Schubert. The finale has Schubertian elements, too. Ballot offers a gentle, warm start – indeed, the word “warm” consistently applies to this performance. But soon enough, after the trumpet call, the gentleness gives way to well-paced drama that accentuates the balance of the orchestra's various sections and delivers the themes with considerable clarity. The contrasting lyrical episodes, which are the elements of the movement directly reminiscent of Schubert, are given time to expand and evolve, but do not feel stagnant. The result is a finale that, despite being unlike Bruckner's later ones and more conventional in most ways (although the use of brass is distinctly "Brucknerian"), does a good job of capping the symphony – even if it does not exactly sum up what has come before. The result of Ballot’s obvious care for and engagement with “No. 0” is a performance that stands as an intelligent, sensitive, beautifully played, thoroughly thought-through conclusion to an excellent, if idiosyncratic, Bruckner cycle.