Search - Anton Bruckner, Eugen Jochum, Dresden Staatskapelle :: Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 8 & 9

4 STAR EDITION

Howard G Brown | Port St. Lucie, FL USA | 10/01/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"First, I think these are excellent recordings -- at least in the boxed edition of symphonies 1 - 9 on EMI. The 4 stars are for the edition of the 8th -- the Nowak edition of the 1890 revision. This has cuts in the adagio (3rd movt.) and in the 4th movement; the first two movements are vitually identical in both the Haas and Nowak editions. It is the Haas edition that is favored by von Karajan, Wand, Haitink, Horenstein (in his live recording on BBC), Barenboim, Boulez, and Barbirolli among others. Szell, Solti, Giulini, Celibedache and a number of other conductors preferred the Nowak 1890 score.On top of that! Tinter, on Naxos, used the Nowak ed. of the original 1887 version, which is another animal entirely, and Knappertsbusch adhered to the old, revised versions that were largely abandoned in the last century -- revisions by the Schalk brothers and Ferdinand Loewe, in particular. However, his version of the 8th (1892 with Schalk) is the same used by Hans Richter in the Vienna premiere. It's worth hearing for a sense of history, for that premiere was a huge success for Bruckner.Furtwangler used his own mixture of Haas and the early revisions,
not only preserving cuts, but also alterations in orchestration.Bruckner is a dream for musicologists! All those versions of the scores to dig around in.Jochum's earlier set of Symphonies 8 & 9 date from the late '40s and early '50s. It includes his only recording of the Haas version of No.8 -- including one of the longest interpretations of the great Adagio on record. The mono sound is very fine; I'd recommend the set to anyone who has either of Jocum's complete sets. If you are new to Bruckner, this set from Dresden of 8 & 9 is a very good place to start, along with Barenboim's double-disc on DG of symphonies 4 & 7 with the Chicago Symphony."

A strong recording, though not best in class.

Howard G Brown | 04/20/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This recording is a great value. I do not believe that there are recordings of these two symphonies, on two discs, at this price, on any other label (including Naxos). The value is greater still when one considers that the recordings come from one of the great Bruckner interpreters.Regrettably, these recordings do not offer the greatest interpretations of these masterpieces. And the gap between second-best and benchmark Bruckner recordings can be great. In both of these recordings Jochum's approach is forthright and not superfluous. The crescendos are dramatically built up to towering heights and the mystery in the recordings is good. What Jochum does not achieve in these recordings is that extra effort to hold together the tension and breadth of these mighty symphonies in the way that the greatest versions of the 8th (Von Karajan, VPO, DG) or the 9th (Walter, Columbia SO, Sony or Solti, CSO, Decca or Barenboim, BPO, Teldec). In these top-rate recordings the conductors and orchestras go the extra mile to take the listener over the top, while Jochum occasionally lowers his guard in certain parts of both of these symphonies.Jochum's recordings are recommendable, however, especially if one does not want to make the outlay for the top-ranking recordings mentioned above, which may be nearly three times the required outlay for this set. The value of these recordings is more evident when you consider that the only other available Eugen Jochum pairing of these symhonies, on Deutsche Gramaphon, are mono recordings from the early 50s. My only other reservation regarding this set is the recording quality (which is from the late 70s and early 80s). The double basses are somtimes muffled sounding, the cellos occasionally lack resonance."

A good place to start with Jochum's Bruckner

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 05/25/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The best thing one can say about Jochum's Bruckner--and this is meant without irony--is that it comes nowhere near the modern wya of playing this composer. Jochum's textures are often crude, his rhythms slack and stolid (he deplored "heated" or "nervous' tempos in Bruckner). Orchestral execution is fairly rough. Why would anyone hear a virtue in this approach? To his admirers, Jochum's Bruckner is "highly charged, romantically intense, seemingly spontaneous," to quote Richard Osborne in The Gramophone.



With all that in mind, this bargain two-fer of the Eighth and Ninth Sym. is pretty wild. Tempos are all over the place, often within a few bars. The brass blasts brashly. The strings sigh sentimentally. It's a bit of a trip considering how staid and solemn Jochum thought his conducting was, and should be. If I were going to buy any of Jochum's Bruckner on EMI (his first cycle on DG from 1967 is reputed to be his better effort), I'd begin here just because the nature of the beast is brought out so clearly. So-so analog sound from the late Seventies."