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Best Sounding Bruckner Recordings

There is a Mahler for Audiophiles thread here, but I am not sure if there is one for Bruckner.  IMO these are the two Composers that benefit the most from high quality sound.  Both Composers relied extensively upon spatial effects.  Bruckner, with his Organist background, was conscious of reverberation effects, and tended to treat the entire Orchestra as one vast Organ.  Mahler had many spatial effects built into his Symphonies.
  I listen to many historical recordings, but I find that these two composers suffer the most when sonically compromised.  I have no problem enjoying a Toscanini Beethoven Symphony, as the majesty of the music and the playing overcome sonic limitations.  However, listening to the Horenstein Bruckner Seventh from 1927 is a real trial.  Even the best restorations make it sound like it was recorded in a phone booth, and the towering beauty of the piece is missing.
  Now, with Bruckner, we have the problem of all of those multiple editions.  I am going to confess straight out that I have no expertise here .  And given that this is an audiophile site, I will concede readily that the best sounding Bruckner recordings may not necessarily be the ultimate in recorded performance.  However, I am looking for comments about great sounding Bruckner recordings that are also good performances 
mahler123
roxy1927
135 posts
 
How is the audience noise on the Furtwangler Music and Arts? At times they all seem to be suffering from influenza.
lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57
5,417 posts
 
@roxy1927,
Audience noise is minimal from what I recall. It's not filled with coughing and such, maybe some movement in the seats. Overall, these are compelling performances. 
I generally like Furtwängler's changes in tempo, except in a few areas where they are too fast and rushed. But these are few and far between.
A very worthwhile listen, now streaming on Qobuz.

mahler123 OP
3,362 posts
 
@brownsfan 
  For many years the Jochum/Dresden set was my only Bruckner.  In the seventies when I started collecting it was the only affordable Bruckner.  Karajan on DG and Haitink on Phillips would release individual symphonies in huge boxes that each would cost more than the Jochum.  I also purchased the set in the early days of CD and still give it the occasional spin.   As I began to experience other Bruckner conductors my main complaint with Jochum was excessive rubato.  He frequently disrupts the long arching lines with speed -up-slow-downs that give me vertigo.  Karajan is the anti Jochum.  His phrasing causes those long lines to emerge as if in one breath
mahler123 OP
3,362 posts
 
My favorite Furtwangler Bruckner is a VPO Eighth recorded in an empty Hall in 1944.  My copy is from a private label created for the fund raising telethons of WFMT in Chicago but it is available on many labels.  It was made the day before a concert performance that is also available as a recording, so if interested be aware.  Furtwangler usually did his best in front of an audience but my understanding is that this was not a rehearsal but a private performance before a few people as well as an air check for the following.  At any rate it’s gripping, with the voice of doom music late in the first movement having an especially powerful kick in the gut.
  And yes, it’s nice to hear Furtwangler WWII recordings without listening to Nazis in the audience hacking away.  I always get distracted hoping and one of them will die choking on his own secretions.
brownsfan
1,508 posts
 
@mahler123,  What an insightful comment regarding Jochum's use of rubato!  Also interesting is your reaction to it.  Your comments resulted in me spending most of the day thinking about, but not listening to,  Bruckner.   I agree completely with your characterization of von Karajan as the anti-Jochum.  Since I have found Jochum (and Venzago) to afford agreeable Bruckner, it will not surprise you to know I am not overly fond of HvK's Bruckner.   I hear chants of "Heresy, Heresy!" off in the distance.  (I also prefer Kempe to HvK for R. Strauss- perhaps fodder for a new thread?)  HvK's Bruckner, and similar approaches to his music, inevitably make me feel unsettled, troubled, even fearful of an immanent musically induced apocalypse.  The 9th, in particular, creeps me out.  In a sense, Bruckner  (HvK) hits me as the anti-Bach.    

I don't put Bruckner in the very top tier of composers.  I also disagree with those who claim he wrote the same symphony 9 or 10 times.   BTW, my favorite Bruckner is the Te Deum, but I have yet to find a satisfactory recording.  Any guidance?
 
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