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Posted by André Purenne # 0 (Nullte): Marriner (!!) and the Stuttgart SO. No joke, this is a magnificent reading and my preferred verison of this work. One last comment: in my opinion, Jochum's Bruckner is best experienced in the earlier, DG cylcle. It's both better played (performances of 1, 4, 7-9 are with the BPO and the rest with the Bavarian RSO) and recorded than the EMI Dresden cycle. Symphonies 1-3, 5 and 6 are as good as any other on the market. The more famous ones (4, 7-9) are also very good, but the competition is extremely fierce here.
on March 13, 2005, 2:23 am, in reply to "Bruckner Symphonies Review"
24.202.218.128
If I may add some other findings to those already in your invaluable listing:
# 2: Horst Stein, VPO (Decca). Easily the best played and most idiomatic (austrian) version.
# 3: Kubelik and the Bavarian Radio SO (Sony, 1877 version). Again, a totally idiomatic and natural eading. This symphony often seeems to atract a special kind of interventionist advocacy by conductors intent on persuading us it's a great work - which of course we know already. Not so with Kubelik who is both radiant, optimistic and beguiling.
# 4: Barenboim and the Chicago SO. Your article mention Barenboim's complete set, but which one? He did them all twice: first in Chicago, then in Berlin. This 'romantic' has the advantage of peerless playing.
#5: Klemperer, VPO - live, 1968 (Living Stage). This shaves 4 minutes off the EMI recording, it's both tauter and more exciting. Actually it's hard to imagine it bettered, even by Horenstein.
#6: Stein again, with the VPO. Also extremely persuasive is the superbly played and recorded Stuttgart Radio SO version led by Ferdinand Leitner (Hänssler), not to be confused with Leitner's own later Basel version (slightly more relaxed and ruminative).
# 7: Carl Schuricht's The Hague Philharmonic, a fast, urgent and flowing account. Despite allowances for less than stellar playing, it's remarkably convincing.
#8: By all means Kubelik's 1963 live Bavarian version ought to be on anyone's short list. It's a tremendous account, intense and exciting but displaying Kubelik's trademark humanity.
# 9: again, Kubelik's Bavarian version (1983, digital)has to go to the top of anyone's short list. It is not only magical, it's simply impossible to ignore. Classics Today has recognized it as simply unique.
I must also single out Vladimir Delman's recording (with an italian orchestra, on Ermitage), and Ferdinand Leitner (Süddeutsche Rundfunk,Stuttgart, on Hänssler), two absolutely extraordinary versions. Leitner is probably the epitome of how this work should sound, whereas Delman's will have you shaking your head, but returning again and again to his compelling vision.
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