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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
mahler123 OP
3,322 posts
 
Lefty

It turns out my digital TAS subscription is still active, because I bought a year in advance, and so I read the favorable review by Ted Libby.  That is quite a story he relates, being one of a handful of people available for what may have been HvK last rehearsal.  I have the Karajan Blu Ray transfer of the Beethoven Symphonies which was a worthwhile investment 
recluse
270 posts
 
Very happy with the boxed complete cycle, Staatskapelle Berlin, Barenboim, DG.

$30 for 9 CD is a heck of a bargain on this IMO
mahler123 OP
3,322 posts
 
I think I paid $25 for the Blu Ray of just the Fourth.  Yes, I would say that’s a bargain, but to paraphrase Pete Townsend, “not the best I ever had.”
mahler123 OP
3,322 posts
 
I’m listening to the Karajan/Berlin Fifth on Blu Ray, and in comparing this to the Redbook Fifth I hate to use the usual audiophile cliche like a veil being lifted, etc...but there it is.  Maybe the cliche about everything snapping into focus is more appropriate....there is greater clarity and ambience.  Whatever.  Great stuff 
scot1970
1 posts
 
Hi there,

I recently doubled up on the Barenboim 1969 EMI recording of Bruckner’s Te Deum, buying both the 2CD Gemini issue, which also has two Bruckner masses and motets, and the EMI Masters issue, which has Barenboim’s Mozart Requiem from two years later with the ECO.

The Masters release has the same line up as the Great Recordings of the Century issue but was remastered at Abbey Road in 2008 by Simon Gibson, according to the booklet. The Gemini was mastered earlier in 2003 (don’t know by whom.)

I wasn’t expecting a change of sound but, my god, it’s quite striking. The later one is brighter at the top end and is harsher. I mean, come on, that piece and especially that recording is in your face. It doesn’t need a boost. The Gemini feels much more natural and with more presence in the organ and bass, and you feel more the recording venue. Why do they have to spoil it! I didn’t think the loudness wars crept into classical recordings that much. Do you know these recordings? What’s your opinion on these releases and the issue in general?

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