Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 7

On this CD:

1. Symphony No. 4 in E flat (Romantic) (Original; Vienna; Karlsruhe; New York; Schalk & Löwe versions), WAB 104
Composed by Anton Bruckner
Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Daniel Barenboim

2. Symphony No. 7 in E major (Lyric), WAB 107
Composed by Anton Bruckner
Performed by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Daniel Barenboim

Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 7, Music, Anton Bruckner, Daniel Barenboim, Berliner Philharmoniker, Classical, Classical Artists, Classical Music, Orchestral & Symphonic, Romantic Symphony, Symphonic

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Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5
Haitinik , and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Manufacturer: Decca/Universal
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 8

ASIN: B000069KIW
Release Date: 2002-05-31

Tracks:

Bewegt, Nicht Zu Schnell
Andante, Quasi Allegretto
Scherzo: Bewegt. Trio: Nicht Zu Schnell, Keinesfalls Schleppend
Finale: Bewegt, Doch Nicht Zu Schnell
Introduction: Adagio _allegro
Sehr Langsam
Scherzo: Molto Vivace_ Trio
Finale: Adagio_ Allegro Molto

Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 4, 7, 8 & 9 [Germany]

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Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 4, 7, 8 & 9 [Germany]
Bohm , Furtwangler , and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Manufacturer: Designo
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00092ZAVS
Release Date: 2006-04-27

Tracks:

Symphony No.4 In E Flat Major 'Romantic'
Symphony No.7 In E Major
Symphony No.8 In C Minor
Symphony No.9 (Unfinished)

Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 4, 6 & 7 [Germany]

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Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 4, 6 & 7 [Germany]
Hollreiser , and Bamberger Symphoniker
Manufacturer: Concerto Royale
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00005NUQH
Release Date: 2006-04-27

Tracks:

Symphony No.4 In E Flat Major 'The Romantic'
Symphony No.6 In A Major
Symphony No.7 In E Major - Oringal Version

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Celibidache's most 'normal' Bruckner is full of inspiration
Celibidache: Great Bruckner conductor, or cult figure?
Karaoke with Celi

Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 3-5, 7-9

Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0002IRY0O
Release Date: 2004-11-09

Customer Reviews:

Celibidache's most 'normal' Bruckner is full of inspiration.......2006-09-02

If you are used to thinking of Celibidache as an enigmatic, glacially slow conductor, this box of Bruckner performances from DG will be an eye-opener. It dates from the Seventies, before the maestro's more eccentric inclinations set in completely--his tempos are anywhere from 2 to almost 10 min. faster in various movements. (In some places, such as the finael of Sym. #7, the tempo may actually be faster than the norm.) The Stockholm and Stuttgart orchestras aren't as proficient as his own Munich ensemble, but they sound fine, as does DG's good FM radio sound.

Measuring Celi by the metronome isn't fair. The real question is what he offers musically, and there's no doubt that he is closely attuned to Bruckner. Long passages of sound are carved like marble; the atomosphere is full of mystery and poetry; sonorities are built on a massive scale and then alternate with intervals of lovely serenity. This is music made alive on the page. Compared to Karajan, another great Brucknerian, Celibidache is more organic and relaxed. One can quibble with things here and there, but then an entire stretch of music, such as the opening of Sym. #3, will emerge as a magnificent whole.

I'm not sure I can erect an altar to Celibidache's entire career, but these Bruckner recordings seem great to me.

Celibidache: Great Bruckner conductor, or cult figure?.......2005-02-19

The first time I ever heard the name Celibidache was back in the late '80's when he was on tour with the Munich Philharmonic. The word among my Bruckner fan friends was that he was on the road with a Bruckner Fourth like no other. Hmmmm...how different could it be? I didn't get to go to the performance while he was in town, but word was that it was one of those things you either loved or hated.

The next time I encountered him was while sitting around one night with some Bruckner (and Furtwangler) fans watching "music videos"...but not exactly the MTV or VH1 kind. I saw two videos of Celibidache. The first clip was of a dashing young matinee-idol looking Celibidache, with a wild swath of hair hanging down on his forehead, conducting the BPO in a fiery reading of Beethoven's Egmont Overture. In the second video, shot about two generations after the first, a kindly, grandfatherly looking, Celibidache, in a cozy sweater, conducted a superbly controlled Munich Philharmonic from a stool, in an impossibly expansive and majestic reading of the first movement of the Bruckner Eighth (this was from the Sony release of the entire Eighth). The latter performance was so slow, when compared with any other recording you've ever heard, that it had no business sounding so good, but somehow it did.

The Celibidache phenomenon, and his superbly drilled Munich Philharmonic, must've created a bit of a stir, for, on the heels of Sony's video releases of Celibidache's performances of Bruckner's Symphonies #6-8, EMI embarked on a project of releasing recordings of Bruckner's Symphonies #3-9, as well as recordings of works by other composers. These recordings were released in 1999, three years after the conductor's death. At that time I was what you could call a "Bruckner Ninth completist," and I already owned one of his recordings of the Bruckner Ninth: one of those "quirky Italian" labels that speicalizes in poorly packaged--and often premium-priced--pressings of "historical recordings" had released a few Celibidache live recordings of Bruckner symphonies from the '70's and '80's (it's pretty common knowledge that the enigmatic conductor, like Furtwangler whom he had succeeded as director of the BPO in 1945, hated making studio recordings).

This two-disc set turned out to be a good indicator of the enigma that was Celibidache. The second disc was a recording of the Ninth Symphony with the MPO from 1981. It was a very good performance, and I felt fortunate to have it in my collection, because it was also a good quality live recording; and it was with Munich (most of his live recordings from that period were with the RSO Stuttgart, a good orchestra but not as good as the MPO). The Ninth was a bit on the slow side, and there were moments when I was a bit too aware of the conductor caressing a phrase, but overall it was a worthy addition to the collection.

The accompanying recording of the Fourth with the RSO Stuttgart from 1973 was another story. Everything was fine through the first three (and three-quarters) movements. It was a spacious account of the fourth, but no slower than, say, Bohm's 1973 VPO recording. But, then, toward the end of the finale something happened: a very self-conscious slowing down of the coda--which is plenty majestic enough w/o an unnatural slowing down. This slowing progressed until the beat was subdivided, the violins sounded like they were literally "sawing away" on their ostinatos, and the orchestra almost ground to a screeching halt before the final chord mercifully stopped sounding. At that point, I almost made a frisbee out of the disc, but I decided it still made a good conversation piece (or at least a coaster). It was the most bizarre thing I had ever heard in a recording of "classical" music. In retrospect, the interesting thing is that such extremely protracted tempos are more often associated with the performances of his last fifteen years, but this recording was made 23 years before his death: it somewhat staggers the Brucknerian imagination to think that 20 years later he made a recording of the Fourth with Munich in which the Finale was actually more than five minutes longer, actually breaking the half-hour mark, presumably for the first and last time in the annals of this work.

[I've been trying to write shorter reviews, but apparently that's not going to happen here.]

When the EMI recordings came out, I was much too curious about the Eighth and Ninth to allow the bizarre timings to scare me away: when I first picked up the Eighth, I thought that the timings of the last two movements--35:04 and 32:08, respectively--must've been misprints...the finale was actually more than 12 minutes--or 60%--longer than Jochum's terse 1964 BPO recording! But I still found things to admire in these recordings, none the least of which was the superbly controlled and patient playing of the orchestra, all of whom I thought must've been practically "Zen masters" (and endurance athletes), to play a Bruckner Eighth that was longer than many recordings of the six-movement Mahler Third!

[Really, my intent is NOT to write a review that is the verbal equivalent of a late Celibidache Bruckner recording!]

So, when DG came out with their Celibidache recordings of Bruckner's Symphonies #3-5&7-9, at first released in two absurdly expensive boxed sets--and the people who purchased those have every right to be perturbed at DG eventually releasing them in a much more reasonably-priced single box--I looked at the set with a certain suspicious curiousity. Could these be anything more than shabby old radio recordings, released to "coat-tail" the EMI and Sony releases, and the conductor's death?

Well, the answer is a defininte, yes, they are much more than that. Any set of Celibidache Bruckner recordings is bound to be a bit of a "mixed bag," and, as the other reviewer pointed out, this set is...but there is much more to admire and enjoy here than I expected. I smiled at the other reviewer's apt comment about the "Karaoke Third;" and while the Fourth is not as annoying as the Third, in this respect, their is still more "Sing along with Serge" than I can take, esp. in the finale. It is one of my pet peeves when conductors hum and stomp their way through a performance (you can probably imagine that I don't much care for Glenn Gould's recordings): one of the Bruckner Ninths that I dumped from my "completist days" was by a conductor named Vladimir Delman, who didn't shut up for more than five seconds during the entire recording (and it wasn't even a very good Ninth even w/o the vocal accompaniment)!
In the case of this Celibidache Fourth, it's too bad about the vocalizing, because the tempo of the finale's coda is much more tolerable than the '73 Stuttgart one I described above.

But, fear not, for the Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth, are all very good, and the recording quality exceeded my expectations, including strong, clear horns, so important in Bruckner; and a full, warm, bass resonance. Also, Celibidache is definitely a conductor who understands the importance of good strong timpani in Bruckner, and the timpani are very well recorded throughout this set, nearly as thunderous as Karajan's, in the finale of the Fifth (HvK used an extra set of timpani in the Fifth). Yes, the tempos are on the slow side, but during this period--which I'm now thinking was a vintage period for Celibidache's Bruckner--they had not become too extreme yet. He manages to pull off the most spacious Fifth Symphony slow movement I've ever heard, with surprising success (even if this almost climax-less movement begins to get a bit monotonous, by the end; but then again, brisker readings of this movement can get a bit tedious, too).

This was the first Celibidache Bruckner Seventh I've ever heard, and it was a very pleasant surprise, with a beautiful, but not excessively slow, adagio; and a nice, flowing, first movement. It was a pleasant surprise to hear him use a nice flowing tempo for the lovely "enchanted forest" theme (as I call it) that flows out of the majestic intro, and launches the movement proper.

The Eighth was also very satisfying, and certainly no slower than Gunter Wand's final--and excellent--recording of the work; or Karajan's 1957 recording, for that matter.

I still prefer Celibidache's aforementioned 1981 MPO recording of the Ninth, which is noticeably more expanisve in the outer movements than the recording included in the DG set; but both performances are evidence that Celibidache was very much in touch with the rarefied spiritual world of this (my favorite) symphony.

If you are a Bruckner fanatic (or a "Brucknerd," as I have sometimes called us), esp. one who likes Celibidache, who has been putting off buying this set, you need hesitate no more. Was Celibidache one of the Great Bruckner Conductors, or just an enigmatic pheonom with a cult following? I feel that this set reveals him as a great Bruckner conductor, even if like many of us, he went on to get a bit "eccentric" in his later years.

Karaoke with Celi.......2005-01-21

This set is a mixed bag. It contains Celibidache's live Bruckner recordings with SWR Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (symphonies 3,5,7, 8 and 9) and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra (the 4th). As is well known, Celi hated studio recordings.

Celi was a great Bruckner conductor, no doubt about that, although he earned this reputation late in his career. But it is indeed painful to hear his karaoke behavior: Celi yells often loudly while conducting, frequently just before a climax, sometimes even with more lungpower than the brass, it seems. Worse than having a coughing audience, I think! This is especially the case in the third symphony, but his characteristic shouts are audible elsewhere too. But don't get me wrong: the interpretations are very fine. And the third, fourth and seventh are among the best available.

Thus these recordings are welcome additions to the Bruckner catalogue. Comparing this bargain DG collector's edition set with the very expensive EMI set, where Celi is conducting Munich Philharmonic, the speeds are swifter. This is especially the case with the eight symphony, which Celi takes extremely slow in Munich. Here are the differences for each movement:

EMI: 20'56 ; 16'05 ; 35'04 ; 32'08

DG : 16'16 ; 13'52 ; 27'08 ; 26'04

I think the earlier DG account in the present set is preferable. The Munich take is too slow, even if the attention to detail is remarkable. Similar judgements are applicable for the rest of the set as well, though the time differences are less dramatic. For example, the account of the fourth is ten minutes faster here. Comparing with Jochum, however, all Celi's speeds are very slow throughout the whole set.

SWR Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra are not famous for their Bruckner playing. In this respect, they do not outshine, say, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, and Concertgebouw. But minor orchestras can surprise with a good conductor, as they do here.

Sound is good but not in upper demonstration class.

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Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 7

Manufacturer: Elektra / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Tracks:

Symphony No. 4 in E flat major 'Romantic': I - Bewegt, Nicht Zu Schnell
Symphony No. 4 in E flat major 'Romantic': II - Andante Quasi Allegretto
Symphony No. 4 in E flat major 'Romantic': III - Scherzo: Bewegt
Symphony No. 4 in E flat major 'Romantic': IV - Finale: Bewegt, Doch Nicht Zu Schnell

Tracks:

Symphony No. 7 In E Major: I - Allegro Moderato
Symphony No. 7 In E Major: II - Adagio: Sehr Feierlich Und Sehr Langsam
Symphony No. 7 In E Major: III - Scherzo: Sehr Schnell
Symphony No. 7 In E Major: Finale: Bewegt, Doch Nicht Schnell

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wild abandon in the scherzo of no.4
Mastery of an idiom.

Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 3-5 (Box Set)

Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00004T763
Release Date: 2001-01-23

Tracks:

1. Mehr Langsam. Misterioso
2. Adagio, Bewegt, Quasi Andante
3. Ziemlich Schnell
4. Allegro

Tracks:

1. Bewegt, Nicht Zu Schnell
2. Andante Quasi Allegretto
3. Scherzo. Bewegt - Trio. Nicht Zu Schnell. Keinesfalls Schleppend
4. Finale. Bewegt, Doch Nicht Zu Schnell

Tracks:

Introduction. Adagio - Allegro
2. Adagio. Sehr Langsam
3. Scherzo. Molto Vivace - Trio. Im Gleichen Tempo

Tracks:

Finale. Adagio - Allegro Moderato
1. Allegro Con Spirito
2. Andante
3. Menuetto - Trio
4. Finale. Presto

Tracks:

Finale. Adagio
4. Finale (Continued/Fortsetzung/Suite)

Amazon.com

Celibidache's mysticism and grand rhetorical style are suited to Bruckner's grandiose symphonies. These 1969-1981 performances of the "middle" symphonies are companions to another DG box of the late symphonies. Both sets compete with Celibidache's later versions with the superior Munich Philharmonic, recorded by EMI in more spacious, detailed sound. But Celibidache's many admirers will want both, for while the EMI set amply demonstrates the conductor's often wayward tempos and obsession with bringing out details others glide over, the earlier Celibidache on these discs is much more straightforward. His Munich performances stressed the ultimate in orchestral transparency and detail; these earlier ones are more flowing and strive for thicker orchestral sound and softer accents. But they still bear the Celibidache stamp--slower and grander than most Bruckner performances, if less idiosyncratic. DG offers an interesting filler with a straightforward account of Mozart's Haffner Symphony and a bonus rehearsal disc documenting Celibidache's perfectionist strivings. --Dan Davis

Customer Reviews:

wild abandon in the scherzo of no.4.......2005-06-25

I've obtained no.4 separate from the entire collection- where Celi conducts the Swedish Radio Symphony orchestra.
This performance contradicts the usual sterotypes assosciated with this great conductor.The Scherzo is taken at a frenetic pace.Surely,it has never been faster! The energy is irresistable and the other movements are done with a similar sense of verve and rhythmic energy.Herbert Von Karjian's EMI version is alarmingly tentative in the 2nd subject group of the ist movement where the celibidace has a rustic gait which ensures that the tension doesn't drop.

Mastery of an idiom........2001-05-31

The DG cycle of Celibidache's Bruckner is a facinating one, and a relativly easy way into the sound world of Celibidache. Here you have the greatest conductor since maybe Mahler navigate the complex metaphysical romanticism of Bruckner with consumate ease. These CDs are a good preparation for the other-worldly deeply profound revalations of Celibidache's '80s, 90s concerts of Bruckner on EMI.

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Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 1 - 9

Manufacturer: RCA
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0001TSWQE
Release Date: 2004-11-09