Top 10 Bruckner recordings

Gramophone April 21, 2021

A beginner's guide to the music of one of the great symphonic composers

There are many hundreds of recordings of Bruckner's music, and dozens of these are recommendable. So
selecting a list of just 10 outstanding recordings that everyone will agree with is impossible, but for those who
are just embarking on a journey through Brucker's sound world, these 10 selections represent 10 perfect
starting points. And for those who have loved Bruckner's music for many years, you may find something here
to surprise and delight. Happy listening!

Symphonies (Complete)
Berlin Philharmonic
Orchestra / Herbert von
Karajan (DG)
'Karajan's understanding of the
slow but powerful currents that
flow beneath the surfaces of
symphonies like the Fifth or Nos
7-9 has never been bettered, but
at the same time he shows how
much more there is to be
reckoned with: strong emotions,
a deep poetic sensitivity (a
Bruckner symphony can evoke
landscapes as vividly as Mahler
or Vaughan Williams) and a gift
for singing melody that at times
rivals even Schubert. It hardly
needs saying that there's no
such thing as a perfect record
cycle, and Karajan's collection of
the numbered Bruckner
symphonies (unfortunately he
never recorded 'No 0') has its
weaknesses. The early First and Second Symphonies can be a little heavy-footed and, as with so many
Bruckner sets, there's a suspicion that more time might have been spent getting to know the fine but elusive
Sixth. However, none of these performances is without its major insights, and in the best of them – particularly
Nos 3, 5, 7, 8 and 9 – those who haven't stopped their ears to Karajan will find that whatever else he may
have been, there was a side to him that could only be described as "visionary". As for the recordings: climaxes
can sound a touch overblown in some of the earlier symphonies, but overall the image is well focused and
atmospheric. A valuable set, and a landmark in the history of Bruckner recording.'
Symphony No 9

Lucerne Festival Orchestra /

Claudio Abbado (DG)
'Claudio Abbado’s 2013 Lucerne
Festival concert was not intended to
be his last, but the programme –
Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony
and Bruckner’s own unfinished
Ninth – spoke of Last Things. And
so in the end it proved.

'Abbado first came to Bruckner’s

music during his apprentice years in
Vienna. Aged 26 he recorded the
First Symphony with the Vienna
Philharmonic and two decades later
made a memorable recording of the
Fourth with the same orchestra. His
Bruckner could on occasion seem
merely dutiful. I recall a somewhat
faceless account of the Seventh
Symphony at the 1984 Salzburg
Festival and a live 1996 recording of the Ninth both with the Vienna Philharmonic. This Lucerne Bruckner
Ninth is something other.

'In his distinguished booklet essay, the Italian writer and broadcaster Oreste Bossini speaks of the
performance’s polyphonic transparency and the naturalness and fluidity of its pacing. Even in the

'Bruckner Symphony No 9 Lucerne Festival Orchestra / Claudio Abbado DG F 479 3441 (9/14) Producer
Georg Obermayer Engineers Urs Dürr, Toine Mertens 96 votes most expressive parts of the Adagio, he
writes, one has the sense that the music is always in motion, ‘never leaning towards pointless self-pity’. I
cannot recall a finer account of this movement, where conductors can so easily lose their way, and players
too in those passages of trackless wandering where they find themselves in foreign keys and unusual
registers.

'Abbado’s reading of the vast first movement is in time but not entirely of it. On occasion the pulse hangs by
a thread. Yet it is a thread that never breaks, like a life that has peaks yet to climb before it makes its quietus.

'All performances are unrepeatable but this is unrepeatable in a particular sense. The Lucerne Festival
Orchestra was a unique assemblage of musicians to whom Abbado entrusted his thoughts and feelings about
Bruckner’s anxious song of farewell. They in turn repaid him with playing of rare concentration and
understanding.' Richard Osborne
 Symphony No 8

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra / Günter

Wand (RCA Red Seal)

'This new Eighth is exceptionally fine. When in

the Scherzo you sense that the mountains
themselves are beginning to dance, you know
you are onto a good thing; on this occasion,
Olympus itself seems to have caught the
terpsichorean bug, Not that anything is
exaggerated or overblown. After all these years,
Wand knows where each peak is and how best
to approach it. His reading is broader than it was
20 years ago, which is perhaps just as well given
the Berliners' own predilections, yet nowhere is
there any sense of unwanted stasis.

Richard Osborne

Symphony No 6
New Philharmonia / Otto Klemperer
(Warner Classics)

'Klemperer's approach to Bruckner is

familiar to us by now majestic, magisterial,
magnificently architectural. The performan-
ce is a glorious one. The New Philharmonia
are absolutely superb in every department,
and Klemperer's comprehensive unfolding
of Bruckner's far-ranging forms is as
infallible as ever. The broad canvas of the
opening movement is built up inexorably, so
that the sudden eruption into the
recapitulation is electrifying in its impact.
The steadily tramping tempo for the
fantastic scherzo seems to me exactly right,
and the melting cadence-phrases in the
echoing trio-section are treated with all the
tenderness they call for. The flowing finale
grows so inevitably under Klemperer's
hands that for the first time I was untroubled by any formal problems of the movement - except at one point:
at the start of the development section, the cellos' inversion of the main theme is submerged by the violins'
countermelody, so that unless one listens very carefully, the music seems to have lost continuity through
introducing a completely new theme at the most unexpected moment` Deryck Cooke (1965)
 Symphony No 5
Lucerne Festival Orchestra / Claudio Abbado
(Accentus DVD)
The 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

Symphony No 5
Bavarian Radio Symphony
Orchestra / Bernard Haitink (BR-
Klassik)

'If you already have one or other of

Haitink’s available Fifths, I wouldn’t
necessarily advise swapping them for this
one, though if you haven’t, the magnificent
playing of the BRSO and BR-Klassik’s
superb recording might tempt you to add
what is in effect a major Bruckner
interpretation to your collection.' Rob
Cowan
 Symphony No 4
Columbia Symphony Orchestra /
Bruno Walter (Sony)
Bruno Walter knew Bruckner's Vienna
at first hand. After a lifetime absorbing
the master's music, Walter
bequeathed to posterity one of the
most memorable of all recordings of
this work: idiomatic, affectionate, and
superbly directed.' RIchard Osborne

Symphony No 2
National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland / George Tintner (Naxos)
This is Bruckner conducting as it used
to be practised by Carl Schuricht,
whose recordings of the Fifth and Ninth
Symphonies will be in many collections.
There is also something reassuringly
old-fashioned about the playing of the
National Symphony Orchestra of
Ireland. Make no mistake, it is a first-
rate ensemble. The solo oboe-playing
and ripe-toned bassoon first catch the
attention; but the entire orchestra has
the character of a well-to-do country
cousin who is blessedly innocent of the
more tiresome aspects of metropolitan
life. An exceptional record.' Richard
Osborne
Motets

Choir of St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh; RSAMD Brass / Duncan Ferguson (Delphian)

'From the austerity of the Libera me of
1854, through the symphonic breadth of
the Ecce sacerdos (1885), to his last great
motet, the Good Friday hymn Vexilla
regis of 1892, we can but marvel at the
abundant contrasts of texture, the
“singability” of his vocal lines and the
affirmation of the texts. Bruckner’s
occasional use of trombones adds a
weighty punch to several of the motets (the
two non-vocal Aequale for three
trombones is a bonus). The Edinburgh
singers perform with a robust though
polished fervour. Alto, tenor and bass lines
are beyond reproach, while the mixed-sex
treble line copes admirably with exposed
writing. The recorded sound is first-class,
capturing both voices and instruments
(including some excellent organ-playing)
with an engaging immediacy.' Malcolm
Riley

Masses Nos 1-3

Sols; Bavarian Radio Chorus and
Symphony Orchestra / Eugen Jochum
(DG)

Like Bruckner, Eugen Jochum came from a

devout Catholic family and began his musical
life as a church organist. He would have known
the Mass texts more or less inside out, which
explains why his readings focus not on the
sung parts - which, for the most part, present
the text in a relatively foursquare fashion - but
on the orchestral writing which, given the
gloriously full-bodied playing of the Bavarian
orchestra, so lusciously illuminates familiar
words. He approaches the Masses with many
of the same ideas he so eloquently propounds
in his recordings of the symphonies and the
music unfolds with a measured, almost
relaxed pace, which creates a sense of vast
spaciousness. This can have its drawbacks; one is so entranced by the beautfully moulded orchestral
introduction to the Benedictus from the D minor Mass that the entry of a rather full-throated Marga Schiml
comes as a rude interruption. DG's digital transfers are extraordinarily good - they really do seem to have
produced a sound which combines the warmth of the original LP with the clarity of detail we expect from
CD.' Marc Rochester