Search - Bruckner, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Grand Montreal Metropolitan Orchestra :: Bruckner 9 [Hybrid SACD]

Nice release

D. Paper | Logan, UT | 09/15/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have heard many Bruckner 9 symphony releases and I rate this one very high. This is a sensitive reading, which I prefer. Maybe this is why it isn't getting good press!!?? When I listen to Bruckner, I want to relax and become immersed in the music and this release by Nezet-Seguin does this for me. It is recorded very well, but maybe it doesn't have the Oomph! that some seem to prefer. This reading is very even and enjoyable to me, but maybe not everyone's cup of tea."

Pleasant and musical, but where's the intensity?

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 12/16/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Nezet-Seguin is the first French Canadian conductor in my experience to rise to the international level. He gets good press and in some quarters is considered a rising star. (I heard him in concert in London and came away moderately impressed.) He's energetic and musical, but of course, the Bruckner Ninth requires much more than that. Bruckner was a consciously spiritual composer who wrote symphonies that are intentionally exalted. With the right conductor they can provide immensely moving and profound experiences. Yet there is another school that finds this overlay of religiosity tiresome, a mere holdover form Victorianism, and they aim to make Bruckner more streamlined, organized, and even efficient -- saving the composer form himself, so to speak. You have your choice between Giulini and Szell, who occupy the outposts of either stance.



What doesn't work is neutrality, and Nezet-Seguin flirts with that in this new Bruckner Ninth. The music moves along with feeling but not intensity. It's mildly uplifting. Accents are rounded, transitions smoothed out. The contrast between very soft and very loud has been minimized. We are neither here nor there much of the time. On technical grounds the sound is warm and natural, and Montreal's "other" symphony orchestra is competent and pleasant.That's about all I can say about Nezet-Seguin's approach as well, although if you want Bruckner to sound soothing, here you go. I want more than rosy light filtering through a stained-glass window."