Edinburgh Festival review - Bruckner 6

On Friday night we went to see the Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchest perform the rarest of Bruckner Symphonies, the sixth.

It was superb.

The orchestra is comprised of 20-25 year olds from all over Europe. The programme listed where former members have gone on to play - the orchestra has been going for 20 years now - and many are now playing in Europe's most prestigous ensembles, including the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics. So there is real talent in this orchestra. And like every other good youth orchestra, they play with real enthusiasm and passion.

The first half of the program was Strauss's Till Eulenspiegels Lustige Streiche followed by seven of Mahler's Knaben Wunderhorn songs, sung by Matthias Goerne. The conductor was Ingo Metzmacher, who I had never heard on disc or live before - but will look out for in future.

I'm not much of a fan of Till Eulenspiegel so it rather passed me by but it was obvious the orchestra was up for it. Matthias Goerne sang movingly in the Mahler songs but the selection was a bit unvaried and slow. But these song are not particular favourites of mine. I heard Goerne in the same hall at the festival three years ago with Alfred Brendel doing Schubert's Schwanengesang which was absolutely riveting, but this time I wasn't so moved. It didn't help that I was trying desperately to supress a cough for half an hour!

Anyway, relief came at the interval with a bottle of water.... on to the main event as far as I was concerned.

The performance of the symphony was as good as I think I will ever hear. This is a crack orchestra, I could not detect a single flaw. The Horn section especially played amazingly, loud or soft they always sounded beautiful. The leader of the double-bass section (who hails from Venezula) was practically dancing with his double bass and it was joyous to see so much engagement with the music from the whole orchestra.

I don't know much about conducting, but it seemed to me that Ingo Metzmacher was communicating to the player mostly about the dynamics. The playing was so spot on that they must have rehearsed this solidly. Tempos were very flowing and natural, probably slightly faster in the main than any of the recordings I've heard (Klemperer, Dohnanyi and Sawallisch) but most importantly never exaggerated, just letting the music speak naturally.

I wish this band would make some more recordings. Definitely one of the best performances I've been to for a long time

 

Great to hear the GMJO are still producing the goods. They have been the highlight of several past Proms seasons for me. I always wondered if Abaddo started them to talent-spot for the BPO!

I was somewhat underwhelmed by the Bruckner 6 with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under Nagano at the Proms this year. There was some fine playing as you would expect from that band, but very little cohesion to the performance. It sounded like an Ikea Bruckner symphony: all the component were there but something had gone wrong with the assembly.

 

Mmm, I've persevered with but eventually given up on Bruckner. Great ideas wandering about aimlessly and fizzling out after losing the plot completely.

 

How true this is. Rather a youth orchestra any day than the tired-sounding, offhand performances I became accustomed to hearing from London's resident orchestras before I gave up concert-going.

narabdela, I wonder if you've only heard second-rate performances of Bruckner? Some people just don't get on with his music, I know, but my world would be an infinitely poorer place without him. If it's the sheer duration of his works you find hard to take, you might like to have one last try with the Te Deum - which I promise is concise, not Te Dious!

 

Hi NickM. Duration isn't a problem. I've done a Ring Cycle, Parsifal and a couple of Meistersingers in the theatre. I just find there seems to be a lack of direction in his music. I'm glad that his music enthuses you though. The world would indeed be a poorer place without the music that we love.

 

From the reviews I've read of Nagano's Bruckner recordings, he's not really a Bruckner conductor. All have been fairly lukewarm.

Additionally, the Sixth symphony seems to be especially difficult to pull off. Most of the recordings by past Brucknerians such as Jochum, Karajan, Solti etc have been dismissed in reviews, leaving the Klemperer's mighty recording in a class of its own.

Since going to the concert I've listened to both the Dohnanyi/Cleveland and Klemperer/Philharmonia recordings. Dohnanyi's is good... but Klemperer's is the business.

 

Strange, but the universally acclaimed Klemperer leaves me cold. I would not be without Solti's Chicago Symphony recording, purely for the splendour of the orchestral sound; but the performance I like best is the one made by Gunter Wand in Hamburg with the NDR SO in 1988 (RCA GD 60061). He re-recorded the symphony in 1995, but that version leaves me cold, too.

Oh dear, here I am doing the "Ah, but have you heard the 1947 Snarfbargel version from the Salzburg festival?" thing which I promised myself I would never do...

 

On last week's evidence that appears to be true. The 6th is probably the toughest to bring off convincingly but I don't think I'll be rushing back to hear Nagano in this repertoire for the next 25 years or so. He has time on his side though, great Bruckner interpretations seem come to maturity when the conductor hits 70+!

I had a similar view about Bruckner symphonies "wandering aimlessly about" until I started going to Gunter Wand's concerts. All was revealed.

 

Hmmm... Gunter Wand was born in 1912, so was 76 in 1988 and thus perhaps in his prime as a Bruckner conductor; but by 1995, when he was 83, I reckon he was past it. And Klemperer was 79 when he made his much-lauded 1964 recording with the New Philharmonia. So perhaps you have to catch them somewhere between 70 and 80.

Well, it's a theory, anyway!

 

I saw Gunther Wand conduct the 5th in 1998 (aged 86) at the Edinburgh festival, and the 8th in 2001 (aged 89) . Both concerts were sublime experiences that I don't expect to be bettered. In my experience his concerts were better than his recordings, not that I've heard all of them.

 

Bruckner 5 - a year later

Return to this thread after a year....

Just come back from same venue, same Conductor (Ingo Metzmacher) this time with the Rotterdam Philharmic Orchestra in Bruckner Fifth (my fave Bruckner).

Another great performance.... same style of conducting, straight down the line, no pulling the tempos around but perfect judgement of the pauses in first and last movements to keep the music speaking of its own accord.

The orchestra are not a great one, not compared to the Gustav Mahler Jugend Orkest from last year - a few fluffed notes from the trumpets were noticeable and string tone a bit stretched, but the performance was very good and convincing. I had goosebumps fromm about 2 mins into the finale that stayed until the massive final chorale. Wonderful.

I've seen this symphony live twice before - Chailly/Concertgebouw and Wand/NDR SO. Both of those were unforgettable, this was merely excellent but hugely satisfying.

This years festival has been a good one, on nine evenings the are doing three concerts a night, at 5.30, 7.30 and 9.30. The complete Beethoven symphonies with Mackerras and SCO at 5.30, different things at 7.30 and complete Bruckner symphonies at 9.30 with different performers for each one.. All seats £10.

Last week saw Finnish Radio Symphony and Oramo in Bruckner 1, And RSNO in Das Lied von der Erde. Both were good, Jane Irwin in der ABschied was haunting and I haven't heard the RSNO play as well for a long time. The Finnish take on Bruckner's early work was fast and lithe and ensemble spot on.

On Tuesday saw Budapest Festival Orchestra, Ivan Fischer and Richard Goode do Brahms 1st concerto.... not so good. Sound was very dark and overwarm, thick strings masking out all other details.

Still got Bruckners 8 & 9 to come..... hog heaven!

 

Is there anybody there?

 

Just like to say that listening to Proms on the radio is more easily achieved with a 1 month old in the room than a 1 year old - anyone care to suggest how long before I get to listen to a complete concert again? And another thing - why does the interval always start just as we sit down to eat, IOW just as little one has gone to sleep?

So Bruckner, yes, well ermm...

 

Our three yr old has gone to sleep at 7.30 since she was few months. She was easy though.

Now got a 7 week old too.... she's difficult. Luckily we have grandparents nearby and lots of babysitting offers- mainly friends with children same age as first child who'll expect us to return the favour. Life gets easier eventually, don't worry!

 

Congratulations on your new arrival!

Just noticed the time on your post - both sleeping by then?




Haven't been keeping up but have you settled on a speaker yet?

 

The Rotterdam Philharmonic is actually a perfectly good orchestra, one step down from the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Perhaps it helps to keep in mind, when you're admiring these youth orchestras that these usually work all summer on a single program, which is why they sound great. Professional orchestras carry a load n times bigger.

Nr 6 is my favorite Bruckner symphony btw.

 

That's a very fair comment about the range of repertoire making a difference.

I saw several performances of Bruckner symphonies in past 4 weeks: 1st with Sakari Oramo and Finnish RSO, 5th as above, 8th with Herbert Blomstedt and Philharmonia, and 9th with Jiri Belohlaveck and BBC SO.

The Philharmonia produced the deepest and most luxurious sound of all of them, especially the strings and horns, while the trumpets suffered a few duff notes on exposed entrances in the first movement. It was great performance of the 8th, unfortunately ruined for me by the man sitting next to me who coughed, sneezed, sniffed and fidgeted the entire time.

The BBC SO and the Rotterdam Phil were probably on a par. Very good performance again of the 9th, quite surprised as have not been wildly excited by concerts or recordings by Belohlaveck in the past.

The Finnish performance of the 1st - also great. Smallish string section so not luxurious tone but that's not required in this symphony. But absolutely crack ensemble, spot on.