Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well, Wagner liked it..., 30 Jul 2007
When thinking about buying Bruckner symphonies and looking at reviews it helps to know the difference between the words "version" and "edition". VERSION means something that Bruckner ACTUALLY WROTE and EDITION means a published score by an editor of a particuar versions. Hence, Leopold Nowak has produced TWO editions of Bruckner's Third, one of the 1873 Version (recorded here) and one of the 1889 version (which was actually Bruckner's THIRD attempt at this symphony, another version - the one he performed at a disasterous concert in Vienna - appeared in 1878). For whatever reasons, Bruckner was a great reviser of his works. There is, for example, an interim Adagio that was written after the 1878 performance and also an added coda to the Scherzo at about the same time!
If you are the sort of person who is worried about the question "What is authentic?" then you can have a field day of worry when you consider the versions of Bruckner symphonies (and if you buy them all on CD you really have about 17 symphonies rather than the 9 you were expecting because you will have to include all the revisions as well as the so-called - and not presented for publication - "Study Symphony" in F and the Number 0 in D minor).
On this disc you get Leopold Nowak's excellent edition of the score that Bruckner presented to Wagner (along with Symphony 2 in C minor) asking him to accept the dedication. Wagner accepted "the one with the trumpet" or the Symphony 3 - not surprisingly as it contained quotations from Wagner's "Lohengrin"! Whilst I admire this Tintner performance it does make the symphony seem as long as it actually is - something avoided by the excellent Eliahu Inbal on Warner, which would be the one I would recommend in this VERSION. Bruckner fanatics will have this disc (and Inbal too) of 1873, but will also have 1878 (Haitink either with the Concertgebouw in the boxed set or with the Vienna Philharmonic - with the added coda to the Scherzo) and 1889 (Boehm on Decca is as good as any as the VPO play spendidly for him).
If you are unfamiliar with Bruckner's music you will probably be better off with an 1889 version, which was the one that was played to great success in Bruckner's lifetime. But if you want the "full monty" then this Tintner disc is slower version of the two 1872 versions easily available. But be warned, it does take an awfully long time to unfold! The one to buy is probably Inbal on Warner.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"It is not only very long but it practically overflows with brilliant ideas", 21 May 2008
The title of this review comes from the description of this symphony given by the late Georg Tintner himself in the sleeve notes of this performance.
I was introduced to Bruckner as a teenager. Being more interested in rock music, my flatmate occasionally had Radio 3 on in the background. I can recall one day working at my desk but being transfixed by the sound coming from the radio. It was Bruckner, and ever since then I have been a fan. I have numerous interpretations of Bruckner's third in my collection, but they are all of the 1888-90 edition; none is of that of the original of 1873. Part of the reason for the lack of more interpretations of the original is due to the fact that the score was not published until 1977, and therefore is not so well-known.
Some idea of the differences in time-scale involved can be gleaned by comparing this, Tintner's performance of the 1873 edition - at 78 minutes - with that of, say, Karajan's of the later edition, at 57 minutes. This twenty-minute greater length manifests itself in a ten-minute extension to the first movement, and five minutes each to the adagio and the finale. The greater length may also be due to Tintner's pace: whilst not as slow as Celibidache, the late great Robert Simpson pointed out in his `Essence of Bruckner' that "Bruckner's sense of motion is naturally slow."
Before reviewing Tintner's interpretation and the strengths and weaknesses of this CD, a few words are required, I feel, for those who know the standard late version but would like to know more about Bruckner's original conception to see if it is worth exploring. For this I rely greatly on the aforesaid book by Robert Simpson. He points out that, whilst famously dedicated to Wagner, the guiding principle to the third symphony is Beethoven's ninth.
The original possesses extra delights, both great and small. As an example of the latter, there is an extended reworked development of the trumpet theme leading up to the entry of the unison figure prior to the commencement of the second subject proper. And there is a gleaming repeat of the third subject with sparkling strings. Not all is better in the original, though. The persistent blasts on a coarsened brass of the brazen trumpet theme does jar after awhile, but the subsequent mystical chorale with barely audible timpani delights. This is just before the recapitulation. The greater length given by Bruckner to the development of the first movement led Simpson to the view that, "Far from being the apparently transitional muddle ... the original ... is an only slightly flawed masterpiece, an immense advance on all before it, the first sublime example of Bruckner."
In other movements, Simpson approved of the return of the second movement's main theme in its middle, and classed the original form of the finale as "one of the grandest and most successful of Bruckner's earlier conceptions." For example, there is a short pizzicato line that introduces the famed joint polka-chorale theme, and the theme itself has more legato in its original form, "thus never losing its freshness" in the more extended treatment it receives throughout the movement. Moreover, the original finale recalls the themes from the previous three movements, just as Beethoven did the same in his ninth, but Bruckner's recollection takes place in the coda, not at the beginning of the movement. The coda itself is mightily impressive as the tension mounts to the return of the opening trumpet theme.
Now what about the performance on this disc? The opening trumpet theme barely rises above the sound of the orchestra, but its pacing is so well-controlled. The pulse is gentler than usual, slower, but also grander: it is a measured and stately performance. The adagio has a baroque feel, a form of interpretation that I often consider suits Bruckner's music so well. Alas, though, the sound quality is disappointing. I do not mean that it is indistinct, for the sound of the orchestra is clear in all its particulars; the problem is that the sound is too distant in terms of presence. There are also - surprisingly - some weak moments in the playing, for example in the middle and second half of the adagio.
Overall, though, this is a competent execution of Bruckner's grand design. But one wonders how many rehearsals did Naxos allow. The problem with this CD is not so much with the vision of either composer or conductor, but with the practicalities of performance and production. Five stars for the symphony; three stars for the performance and sound.
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~ Anton Bruckner
~ Anton Bruckner
~ Anton Bruckner
~ Anton Bruckner
~ Anton Bruckner
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