Box-set Round-up: December 2024 (Poschner, Knappertsbusch, Schaller)

Rob Cowan
Friday, November 29, 2024

Rob Cowan listens to sets of Bruckner and Schubert symphonies, plus a pair of pianists

Last January we published a fascinating interview by Christian Hoskins in which conductor Markus Poschner (whose Bruckner recordings were at the time appearing on the Capriccio label) offered insightful illumination on the nature of Bruckner’s inspiration. ‘Bruckner’s view of things is fundamentally different from that of other composers’, said Poschner. ‘It seems to me that he looks directly upwards and therefore inwards. Beethoven’s gaze goes straight ahead, straight into the eyes of those in power. Wagner’s gaze descends far into the depths of the human soul and subconscious. Bruckner looks into the infinite, and yet is still deeply connected to Upper Austrian folk music traditions, something which is unique in the history of music.’ This for me is an essential observation, sidestepping the clichéd ‘Bruckner mode’ in favour of a more direct approach where each symphony treads its own turf, with its own spray of flora and fauna, mountainous backdrop and with God the essence of all things (Spinoza) rather than shackled inside a cathedral. For that Rémy Ballot’s St Florian cycle for Gramola, spaciously recorded and with tempos that at times are akin to Celibidache’s in Munich (on Warner Classics), might prove appropriate. Most impressive is the prayerful Adagio of the Seventh (26'06"), while at 66'28" the total playing time of No 8’s last two movements (1890 version curated by Paul Hawkshaw) falls just three minutes short of the timing for Knappertsbusch’s 1955 recording of the whole symphony (ed Schalk) with the Berlin State Orchestra (Scribendum, 8/21). Imposing, but not for me.

As to Hans Knappertsbusch himself, Pristine Audio has released a three-CD set of his commercial Bruckner recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic for Decca, namely Symphonies Nos 3‑5, the Fourth characterised by great warmth, the Third by the easy, peasant-like gait of the finale’s smiling polka and the Fifth (the one stereo recording in the set) by its refusal to linger. Again, Franz Schalk’s editions are chosen (with Josef Schalk in No 4). His interventionist editions are largely discredited nowadays; but still, enough of the music is left untouched for us to enjoy the basics of Knappertsbusch’s gruff but eminently human conducting.

Poschner’s approach is wholesome and direct, as well it might be considering he’s given us 11 symphonies in 18 versions. His performances are shared between the Bruckner Orchester Linz and the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and are now boxed complete by Naxos – the label’s second cycle; its first was under Georg Tintner – a generous fanfare to bring Bruckner’s bicentenary year to a close. We’re given the ‘Study’ Symphony (1863), the ‘Nullte’ or D minor (1869), two editions of No 1 (Linz and Vienna versions, 1868 & 1891), two of No 2 (1872 & 1877), three of No 3 (1873, 1877 & 1889 plus an 1876 version of the Adagio, ed Nowak), three of No 4 (1876, 1878/80 & 1888 plus the 1878 ‘country fair’ or Volksfest finale), Nos 5-7, two versions of No 8 (1878 & 1890) and the Ninth, though there’s no performing version of the finale.

Enter then Gerd Schaller, whose excellent Bruckner recordings with his Philharmonie Festiva have been appearing as single releases and in box-sets (three so far, with a fourth planned for the coming year at the earliest). Schaller’s final set (for Hänssler Profil) will include the ‘Study’ Symphony, 1863; No 1: 1866 & 1891; Symphony in D minor, 1869; No 2: 1872 & 1877; No 3: 1873, 1874, Adagio 1876, 1877 & 1889 (1890); No 4: 1874, 1876 (Volksfest), 1878/80 & 1890; Nos 5-7; No 8: 1887, 1888 & 1890; and No 9 with Schaller’s ‘completion’ (or should I say ‘performing version’) of the rather unsettling final movement (rev 2024), recorded this year.

Schaller has set down the Ninth four times, on each occasion with a different ‘performable’ finale (based, as are other versions of the finale for this symphony, on Bruckner’s surviving sketches). As to choices, Poschner offers us a workable overview of Bruckner’s evolving style. I like his gutsy performances a great deal, though Schaller’s marginally warmer, less intense approach also appeals. Both stand their ground in relation to the ‘standard’ nine symphonies as performed by, among others, Daniel Barenboim with the Staatskapelle Berlin (DG, and still insanely inexpensive given its exceptional quality), Herbert Blomstedt with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (Accentus) and Marek Janowski with the Suisse Romande Orchestra (Pentatone), with distinguished earlier sets under Günter Wand (RCA, with later separate recordings), Herbert von Karajan (DG), Eugen Jochum (DG/ Warner) and Bernard Haitink (who includes ‘No 0’) as essential analogue/stereo pioneers. Paavo Järvi and Christian Thielemann also win critical plaudits – including some from me – but in the digital field I’d pursue those quoted above in the first instance.

I’ve always thought of Bruckner as an epic offshoot of Schubert rather than a Wagner worshipper, but whether that association would have occurred to me in the wake of hearing recordings of Schubert’s symphonies under Jan Willem de Vriend (with The Hague Residentie Orchestra on Challenge Classics) and the conceptually similar set by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra with Thomas Dausgaard (BIS) is another matter. Heard next to, say, Karl Böhm, Claudio Abbado (DG), Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the COE (ICA) or Wolfgang Sawallisch (Decca) – all of them first-rate – these fleet, keenly animated readings allude more to Mozart or Haydn than to Bruckner. The two versions of the Fourth and Eighth (Unfinished) Symphonies make for telling comparisons. On de Vriend’s 2018 recording the first movement of the Unfinished (with repeat) stretches to a respectably imposing 14'38", stressing the music’s moderato element rather than its overriding allegro. By contrast, Dausgaard, who also takes the repeat in 2006, clocks up a nifty 11'02": two very different types of drama. I applaud Dausgaard’s decision to include the repeat in No 4’s finale (de Vriend omits it), which answers the first movement’s clouded intensity. Both conductors turn in a fiery, full-bodied Great C major; but good (and in many respects revelatory) as they both are, were I forced to choose, I’d probably opt for Dausgaard, who also gives us various shorter fill-ups.

Back in the day another revelatory release was ‘An Introduction to Der Ring des Nibelungen’, which served as a sort of training pack for those who had invested in Georg Solti’s searingly dramatic Vienna Philharmonic recording of Wagner’s Ring tetralogy, recently reissued (2022) in sound that you wouldn’t believe for presence and immediacy. You can judge for yourself by investing in Decca’s CD ‘The Golden Ring: Great Scenes from Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen’. For ‘An Introduction’, Decca Eloquence calls on an earlier incarnation (2012) of the same recording, which, excellent though it is, fails to match the new version’s spectacular impact. We’re given a blow-by-blow – or should I say whistle-stop – tour through The Ring with all its salient motifs sympathetically presented by Deryck Cooke, the themes additionally printed as notation in the booklet. Also included is Siegfried Idyll in its original 13-instrument scoring (led by Walter Weller) and Kinderkatechismus sung by members of the Wiener Sängerknaben under Ferdinand Grossman. Not only is ‘An Introduction’ a worthy guide to Solti’s (and John Culshaw’s) monumental achievement but it can also act as an involving tutorial for any version(s) of The Ring that you happen to have on your shelves.

Writing in Replay for July 2023 I covered an excellent DG collection that included all the American Decca recordings that the Austrian violin virtuoso Erica Morini made in collaboration with the Czech pianist Rudolf Firkušný in the early 1960s. ‘Uniformly superb’ was my assessment, adding: ‘Here we have a duo that shares an equal footing, each partner sensing where the other is coming from. Franck’s Sonata can rarely have enjoyed a more persuasive recording, certainly not in recent years, Firkušný’s selfless grandeur offset by Morini’s chaste expressivity. Try the finale, where you’ll hear what I mean about Morini’s skilful bowing, while Firkušný’s crystal-clear pianism – which additionally admits a wide range of colour and dynamics – underpins the violin’s silvery tone.’ Eloquence’s ‘Rudolf Firkušný Edition’ includes those same recordings (Brahms, Franck, Mozart and Beethoven – eight sonatas in all) as well as Dvořák’s Piano Concerto (idiomatically played under László Somogyi, largely as revised by Vilém Kurz), a justly famous series of Janáček recordings for DG (solo works plus the Concertino and Capriccio with members of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Rafael Kubelík), some strongly projected Beethoven (the Emperor with the New Philharmonia under Uri Segal and Sonatas Nos 8, 14 and 21, all ex-Decca Phase Four) and a first release of Mozart’s Duport Variations, K573, with Schubert’s Sonata in B flat, D960, an Israel Horowitz production, originally for Decca, dating from January 1963. Another, rather more celebrated Horowitz – the pianist Vladimir – heard Firkušný play Schubert on the radio and thought it ‘beautiful’, which it is: a model of good taste, yet never dull. The transfers are excellent and so are Jed Distler’s notes.

Firkušný was 82 when he died in 1994, whereas the accomplished French pianist Catherine Collard, once described as ‘Clara Haskil’s little sister’, was only 46 when she died of cancer in 1993. Collard’s complete Erato, EMI and Virgin recordings have been gathered together in a seven-CD set by Erato and include a series of violin sonatas with Catherine Courtois, namely two each by Schumann and Prokofiev and a coupling of the Franck and Lekeu Sonatas, great works all of them, performed with a combination of physical energy and intellectual commitment. Piano music by Schumann, d’Indy and Satie also features in the set, the performances easily as involving as the violin sonatas.

The recordings

Bruckner Complete Symphonies Edition, Markus Poschner, Naxos 8 501804

Bruckner Symphonies Nos 0-9, Rémy Ballot, Gramola 99311

Bruckner Symphonies Nos 3-5, VPO / Hans Knappertsbusch, Pristine Audio PASC723

Bruckner Complete Symphonies Edition, Philharmonie Festiva / Gerd Schaller, Hänssler Profil (forthcoming in 2025)

Schubert Complete Symphonies, The Hague Residentie Orch / Jan Willem de Vriend, Challenge Classics CC72997

An Introduction to Der Ring des Nibelungen Georg Solti, Deryck Cooke, Decca Eloquence ELQ484 6918

Rudolf Firkušný Edition DG Eloquence ELQ484 6393

Complete Erato, EMI Classics and Virgin Classics Recordings Catherine Collard, Erato 5419 79626-3

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