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Site review by Polly Nomial April 24, 2008
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Performance: Sonics (MC): |
Another fine disc from Nott and his Bamberg forces.
Pacing the first movement in duple time (as the score indicates), Nott draws a nice balance between speed and breadth. Every detail has time to speak, yet is moulded convincingly into a coherent structural framework that allows the mind to follow the musical argument with ease. Nott chooses to avoid making the climaxes comparable with those of the later symphonies - probably wise given the different general strengths of the compositions.
The slow movement is taken with a tempo that allows the five sections to be woven as one whilst retaining their distinctive character. This skill is also used to unify the Scherzo in a way that is greatly satisfying with the conducting that allows this to be viewed as a premonition for the 9th's scherzo. Wonderful brass playing that elucidates every note without overwhelming the strings or wind.
The finale, like many symphonies of Bruckner from this period, draws on the principal motifs of the earlier movements. It is at times like this that one fully appreciates the care and thought of Nott when all of them slot seamlessly into the argument without disturbing the pulse of the movement. Very well done indeed, as is the glowing coda where the white heat of the performance is visceral.
My only reservation (and it is slight) is the slightly recessed recording that places an admittedly beautiful sheen over the orchestra at the expense of the last ounce of detail. That aside, the recording allows the music to (by and large) speak for itself most convincingly.
Recommended on the whole and, recording limitations aside, this disc has returned time and again to my player...
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Copyright © 2008 John Broggio and SA-CD.net
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Site review by Castor April 6, 2005
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Performance: Sonics (MC): |
This is the second recording of Bruckner’s 3rd symphony to appear on SACD and, surprisingly, both are of the 1873 version, which Bruckner never heard performed in his lifetime.
It is also the one that includes quotes from Wagner’s Walküre and Tristan in the first and last movements and which I personally prefer to the 1877 revision.
Jonathan Nott, a new name to me, has been the artistic director of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra since 2000 and on this showing has a great future.
One of the marks of a good Bruckner conductor is the ability to set the correct pulse throughout each movement and so avoid any feeling of stop-go in the music. Nott seems to me to judge his chosen tempi perfectly and, while never seeming hurried, moves the music inexorably forward throughout the 63 minutes of this performance (Nagano takes 68min)
The playing of the orchestra, particularly the brass, is magnificent throughout and the expansive acoustic of the Joseph-Keilberth-Saal in Bamberg seems ideal for Bruckner.
This recording is a co-production with Bavarian Radio so it is probably PCM, but sounds excellent, with the rear speakers providing just the right degree of ambience.
Highly recommended.
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Copyright © 2005 Graham Williams and SA-CD.net
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Review by prometheus August 23, 2005 (5 of 6 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics (MC): |
This disc was approached with the highest expectations--and yet has proved profoundly disappointing!
First, although Bruckner subjected the symphony to endless revision throughout the years of his professorial career in Vienna, I have always cared greatly for it. In this respect alone, I am in the good company of both Wagner and Mahler! Over the years, I have heard some wonderful performances: in concert by Wand, Kubelik and Masur, on record by Jochum (Dresden especially), Vanska, Bohm and, above all, that much-missed giant, Giuseppe Sinopoli. Second, while I--and presumably Anton Bruckner--have preferred the Nowak 1888 employed by Karajan, Bohm, Kubelik and Jochum to the various embryonic originals used by Inbal, Sinopoli and Vanska (1876 and 1877, in various permutations), I was keen to hear the 1873 edition which had elicited RW's approval--so long as Bruckner agreed to excise the 'hommage' of operatic quotation.Third, while I had heard nothing from this young English conductor,his background seemed unbelievably propitious: English Cathedral chorister, Cambridge choral Scholar, opera voice-training, immersion in contemporary music and, above all, turning his back on the world of 'graduate conducting seminars' and prestigious competitions, in favor of following the traditional Austro-German career path through repetiteur positions in small municipal opera houses--and then onward and upward! Last, the Bamberg orchestra--formed by emigres from the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia--has done some wonderful work over the years under its founding director--the great Joseph Keilberth--and under Eugen Jochum, Claus-Peter Flor, and Horst Stein. This is an orchestra one might dream of inheriting!
And the playing is, for the most part, very fine with some weighty brass worthy of Bayreuth and some utterly gorgeous violin tone which are both faithfully reproduced in a natural-sounding recording. Woodwind intonation is often another matter. And the goose-flesh one expects from the opening string ostinato/crescendo--as Bruckner was a great railroad fan, I have always felt that this was a representation of an oncoming express which then hurtles by--and the brass perorations broadening out at the close--well, they are all there!
What my ears do not hear, however, is just what another listener has found to characterize Nott's reading: regulation and consistency of pulse, and smooth integration of the often disparate parts of this whole. I must go further and indict Nott as an exemplar of the conducting type which is becoming all too common and which I dare to damn as "rock-and-roll conducting". If the music is at least moderately fast and loud, there is nothing amiss. But come difficult transitions and (especially) come slow music from andante downwards and we're in trouble, losing the pulse and sometimes almost grinding to a halt. The scherzo here is a prime example of the good--thrusting, driven, powerful--the "quasi adagio" with its inevitable marking of 'feierlich' represents the less-than-good. Some conductors born after, say, the Second World War can feel, articulate,express and sustain a genuinely slow tempo--and Bruckner wrote his most profound music in those 'feierlich' adagios, not in the brief, contrasting scherzos-but they are few and far between. To name names of the blessed few: Chailly, Rattle, Kreizberg, Conlon, Flor, Levine, Chung, Gergiev, Nagano, Vanska..........
Every reviewer I've ever read regularly mounts his unapologetic hobby-horse--and now I'm off on mine. Strong disagreement--and further examples of the illuminati--will be welcomed on the discussion thread.....
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