Bruckner: Complete Symphonies [George Tintner] [Naxos: 8501205]

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I love the 8th in particular and I hold the Van Beinum second only to the Szell/Cleveland Orchestra performance which remains my benchmark after 37 years. The beauty achieved by Szell in the slow movement remains unmatched for me on records (and I have many of this work) and the orchestra plays with the rich sonority one might associate with Chicago. It was one of his last recordings and the work was close to him over the years. It's a jewel in a discography filled with treasures. The latest in this line, or so it would seem, is Georg Tintner, well known in New Zealand and in Canada (where he has worked a good deal with the National Youth Orchestra), but scarcely heard of elsewhere. Daniel Barenboim conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, 1997 (using a pre-publ. Carragan ed.) - Teldec CD 3984 21485-2

Claudio Abbado, VPO. Decca. I haven't heard his DG remake with the same orchestra, but this is the version I got to know this puzzlingly neglected symphony. How about the Eighth? I am happy with Jochum's and---more recently---Pierre Boulez with the wonderful Vienna Phil.Karajan/BPO/DG. Tintner/Irish National Orch, Naxos. The much longer original, with scherzo first and adagio second. Interesting, but not quite as structurally coherent. Alexander Rahbari, Brussels Radio orchestra, (obscure Belgian label whose name I can't recall offhand). Also excellent and cheap. Adagio: In the fifth section a solo violin was added from bar 150 to bar 164. During the rehearsal, violin soloist Heinz Haunold told: "... the violin solo at that point of the movement effectively prevented the orchestra from rising to the great climax ... but it also contained a fatal trap for the performers of the symphony." [7] [8] What's appealing about the 'full monty' is the feeling it gives of the symphony's Schubertian pedigree: heavenly length joining hands with a deep sense of melancholy and melodic Angst. Carragan edition (2007): this edition is a critical edition of the 1877 version of the symphony. [11] Carragan explained its origin: "After a bit of discussion, Hofrat Nowak asked me to prepare a new edition of the symphony for the Collected Edition, knowing, as many others did as well, that he had not dealt fully with the problems of the Haas edition in 1965." [7]

Nowak edition (1965): this edition still contains residues of the Haas' "mixed version" - among others an error in the trumpet parts at the end of the first movement: [10] I think Karajan is tops in the seventh, and while I like his VPO recording on DG, my preference is again for the one on EMI with the BPO. Hermann Scherchen conducting the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, 1965, Disco Archivia CD - with a large cut (bars 388-512) in the Finale One that some people like a lot, and I like it, although not quite as much as the above, that has similar tempos to those, but which will be much easier for you to find on CD is the Thielemann/Munich Philharmonic recording on DG. Sinopoli/Dresden on DG is another good one. For a faster, more aggressive approach, there is Welser-Most/London Philharmonic on EMI. Georg Tintner conducting the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, 1996 (using a pre-publ. Carragan ed.), NaxosThe sound is excellent, the camerawork sensitive and technically first-rate. Abbado himself is invariably the main focus of attention and he’s wonderful to watch: theatrical posing and outsize gestures are evidently foreign to his nature. What you see is clear cueing, a discernible beat and subtle facial responses. The players vary in age and appearance: no stiffening dress-code clamps down with unwarranted formality, just well-dressed men and women totally into the business of making great music. And boy, do they deliver!' Rob Cowan This is hardly recognizable if you know the familiar version, except for the use of the same basic thematic material. Perhaps the greatest of all recordings of the work, spacious, involved, profoundly human. So persuasive is Giulini’s interpretation, it makes it almost impossible to take seriously the attempt at a more detached, monumental approach found in Daniel Barenboim’s more recent Teldec performance. Giulini’s ability to convey fervour without sentimentality is little short of miraculous, and it’s clear from the way the early stages of the first movement effortlessly project an ideal balance between the lyrical and the dramatic that this reading will be exceptional. The recording might not have the dynamic range of current digital issues, and resonance can sound rather artificial in louder passages. There’s also an obtrusive extension of the trumpet triplets seven bars before the end of the first movement. But such things count for less than nothing in the face of a performance which culminates in a finale of such glowing spontaneity you could almost believe that the orchestra are playing it for the first time, and that neither they (nor any other orchestra) will ever play it better.