Bruckner:
The Complete Symphonies (Nos. 00, 0, 1-9), in 18 versions. Bruckner Orchester Linz and ORF Vienna Radio Symphony
Orchestra conducted by Markus Poschner. Naxos. $99.99 (18 CDs).
One of the most important releases from anyone, on any label, in this
bicentennial year of Bruckner’s birth, the new and hyper-complete version of
his symphonies directed by Markus Poschner is the second groundbreaking and tremendously significant Bruckner release
from Naxos – and deserves to be as celebrated as the first. That first one, presented
more than 20 years ago within the label’s excellent “White Box” series,
featured Georg Tintner conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra,
National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in
Bruckner’s 11 symphonies, including rarely heard or never-heard-before
recordings of symphonies’ first versions and of the “Study” symphony sometimes
called No. “00.” Although the orchestras did not have an ideal or especially
idiomatic sound for Bruckner and some of Tintner’s tempo and repeat decisions
were rather questionable, the recording deserved to be celebrated – and still
does – for the care and excellence with which Tintner (1917-1999) approached
the music and the consistency of his attentive handling of its complexities in
performances dating to 1995-1998. This set remains one of Tintner’s great
accomplishments – and one of Naxos’ as well.
The new Poschner compilation, collecting recordings made from 2018 to
early 2024 and originally released in rather haphazard fashion on the Capriccio
label, is an equally major accomplishment and incorporates considerable
historical findings and performance analyses and discoveries from the last 25
years. Foundational to everything is the decision to offer the 11 symphonies in
18 versions. The exact number of versions of Bruckner’s symphonies is such a
longtime preoccupation that entire academic/musicological careers can be and
have been founded on the arguments back and forth. The basis of this particular
decision-making is the would-be-definitive New
Anton Bruckner Complete Edition from the Austrian National Library, which
omits versions considered to be “interim” and regards as authentic only
symphonies that were performed or printed – although this too is a judgment
call, since minor corrections and revisions are deemed immaterial. From this
perspective, there is only one version of Nos. “00” and “0” and only one of
Nos. 5, 6, 7 and 9. There are two versions of Nos. 1, 2 and 8 and three of No.
3. And No. 4 is a special case, with three complete versions plus an
additional, fully formed finale known as “Country Fair” that was never
completely attached to any of them. Also here are an 1865 Scherzo originally intended for the first version of Symphony No. 1
but never included in it, and an interim Adagio
for No. 3 that, again, never made its way into any complete version of that
symphony.
Most of these complexities of versions (and specific editions used for
these recordings) were nicely boiled down to a two-page table accompanying each
of the Capriccio releases but unfortunately omitted from the 176-page booklet
included with the Naxos set. This is one of several small but annoying instances
of packaging sloppiness in an otherwise excellent set – for instance, the
first-movement designation for Symphony No. 6 is incorrectly given as Maestoso rather than Majestoso, and the total timing for CD
#11 is given as 65:53, identical to that of #10, when in fact #11 runs more
than 83 minutes. It should also be pointed out that some elements of the
alternative versions heard here are more of academic interest than of
significance to comparatively casual listeners. On the other hand, in many
cases the symphonies presented here in more than one version genuinely sound
like different works, with orchestrations, movement tempos, structural elements
and more distinguishing them from each other. The fact that this set is
interpreted by a single highly skilled and knowledgeable conductor, with the
music played by two orchestras that have longstanding expertise in Bruckner
performance and the sort of warm sound and sectional balance that excellent
Bruckner requires, makes the release all the more compelling. Poschner knows
Bruckner inside-out and has a firm grasp not only of the “Bruckner sound” but
also of the ways in which Bruckner’s symphonies strongly reflect some of their
influences, notably those of Wagner (whom Bruckner idolized), Beethoven (three
Bruckner symphonies are in D minor, the key of Beethoven’s Ninth), and Schubert
(whose lyricism and approaches to transitions within movements are everywhere
apparent). In every version of every symphony, Poschner offers a carefully
considered performance, with a strong emphasis on preserving and elucidating
Bruckner’s musical architecture, and with well-chosen tempos that, although
generally on the somewhat fast side, do not attempt to make statements in and
of themselves by being either exceptionally expansive (like those favored by
Rémy Ballot) or unusually fleet-footed (the approach of Mario Venzago). Nothing
is ever misplaced here: Poschner’s familiarity with the underpinnings of
Bruckner’s style lets him build an imposing edifice not only of entire
symphonies but also of specific elements within them, such as the Adagio movements of No. 7 and No. 8
(both versions), as well as the concluding Adagio.
Langsam, feierlich of No. 9.
The conclusion of No. 9 does, however, point to one of several elements
in this important release that are musically
problematic. Bruckner finished most of the intended finale of No. 9, and that
last movement has been completed in numerous ways – at least 11 of them,
according to the extensive booklet notes by Yale School of Music professor
emeritus Paul Hawkshaw (notes that are, unfortunately, quite repetitious, since
they are simply reprinted verbatim from the original separate, standalone
releases of individual symphonies). Although the producers of this set may not
have wanted to show favoritism to any of the completions, the edition is too
important to have omitted the music of the planned finale altogether. One
solution could have been a supplementary disc including two or even three
alternative completions. Another – used cleverly decades ago by Max Goberman in
his recording of Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony No. 8 – would have been to
offer, as an appendix, only the music that Bruckner definitely wrote and
completed, as the Schubert recording included nine orchestrated bars of Schubert’s
planned third movement plus a further fragment existing only as a piano draft
and therefore performed on piano. The unwillingness to try to accommodate any
of Bruckner’s very clear (and almost complete) plans for the finale of his
Symphony No. 9 is a weakness in what is otherwise a very strong set.
There are also some odd discrepancies between what the Hawkshaw
narrative about the symphonies asserts and what the performances by Poschner
demonstrate. Hawkshaw says Symphony No. 3, in its first version, “is Bruckner’s
longest,” but Poschner goes through it in just over 57 minutes, a time frame far
shorter than Tintner’s (which runs 77 minutes) and shorter than Poschner’s
readings of No. 4 (first and third versions), No. 5, No. 7, and No. 8 (both
versions). Hawkshaw notes that the interim Adagio
of No. 3 “is eleven bars longer than the slow movement in the version of 1873,”
but in Poschner’s recordings the movements are within 16 seconds of each other.
And Hawkshaw says the third movement of Symphony No. 6 “is the shortest Scherzo/Trio of all the Bruckner
symphonies,” but in these performances it is longer than the comparable
movements of Nos. “00,” “0,” 1 (first version), 2 (both versions), and 3 (all
three versions). All this is, of course, nitpicking, and some of it may be due
to different definitions (a movement may be “longer” in bar count but shorter
in performance time, for example). But it is precisely because this is so
exceptionally important a release, containing such convincing performances,
that small matters like these stand out as irritants.
None of the minor issues of narrative and packaging detracts one iota
from the overall quality of Poschner’s interpretations – or, for that matter,
from the quality of the recorded sound, which is rich and full and altogether
apt for the clarity-within-heft approach that Poschner takes to the symphonies.
The old canard that Bruckner did not so much write nine symphonies as write the
same symphony nine times still shows up occasionally (perhaps now modified to
“11” rather than “nine”), and interestingly, Poschner neatly highlights ways in
which all (or at least most of) the symphonies do have distinct similarities, through rhythmic touches, specific
thematic approaches, even an orchestral sound surely influenced by the
composer’s mastery of the organ (although they are certainly not “translations”
of some sort from organ to large-scale ensemble). The symphonies exist on a
continuum of which Poschner is clearly aware, and he manages to elucidate, strictly
musically, many ways in which the germs of “Brucknerian” symphonic style
already existed in Symphony No. 1 (written before No. “0”) although they only
became salient characteristics as the composer gained self-confidence in
symphonic form over the years (No. “00,” the earliest of all, has only a few
touches that would recur in later works).
There are many fine recorded versions of Bruckner’s symphonies now available, and numerous excellent complete or almost-complete Bruckner cycles. No single set of interpretations, Poschner’s or anyone else’s, can really be called the “best,” much less definitive: Bruckner’s music is so rich and admits of so many approaches and viewpoints that his symphonies, like Beethoven’s, reveal something new in each interpretation/reinterpretation. However, as with the Beethoven symphonies, listeners will very likely want a single foundational recording that stands as a kind of touchstone of the music, to which other performances can be added from time to time in order to broaden the experience of the works. The Tintner cycle has served as just such a central experience of Bruckner’s symphonies for more than two decades. It still can – but now, with this Poschner set, an even more extensive Bruckner experience is readily available, with even better orchestral playing and recorded sound, and with the bonus of multiple distinct and distinctive versions of several of these endlessly fascinating and deeply meaningful symphonies.
