That said, totally endorse Nick's wise words of wisdom. The only thing I can claim that I am "better" at with regards to all things musical when compared to Dr Cohrs and Simon Rattle, is that I have almost certainly (but not completely sure) listened to more recordings of Bruckner's Sixth Symphony than they have which, to be blunt, anyone can do really. What is coming across loud and clear from all of my correspondence with Ben (and there's previous) is that he is as passionate about Anton Bruckner's music as the next person, with a particular fascination with the all the head-scratching that his legacy, with its copious revisions and contradictions, gives interpreters. In some respects it says much for MWI that we allow editors, conductors, composers and recording executives a platform upon which they can state their points of view.
Best,
Lee
This issue of the metronome marks for the first movement of Bruckner 6 has been discussed in some detail in none other than MusicWeb itself, http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2018/Jan/Bruckner_sy6_article_CH.pdf , both as an issue in itself and for its bearing on a few selected performances.
While I would refer readers to this article for a fuller discussion, there are a few points I would reiterate here:
1. The metronome marks in the MS score (downloadable from IMSLP) are clearly in a different hand from the rest. Scholars seem to agree that they were added posthumously by Cyrill Hinais, who claimed Bruckner's authority for them.
2. At the time Hinais added these markings, this movement had not yet been performed, so Hinais himself (or Bruckner himself), faced with the practical facts of life, may have had to recognize that the opening tempo was optimistically fast, though it may stand as a warning not to take it too slow.
3. Hinais' marking for the slower second theme, which is not contradicted by any accelerando or "a tempo" marking until the first theme reappears in the middle of the movement, and then at the end, produces the effect that the triplet crotchets (fourth notes) underlying this new tempo go at about the same speed as the previous "normal" crotchets. My contention is that, whatever speed you start at, you should respect this relationship when the change of tempo arrives. Keilberth and Horenstein signally do this. No doubt they are not alone, my article was not intended as a complete guide to recordings of the symphony. One famous performance that signally does not is Klemperer's. I haven't investigated the Rattle.
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