11 June 2011

What I'm waiting for in the second half of 2011

As far as Bruckner recordings are concerned, there are some which I'm eagerly waiting for. Most of them are next installments in their respective ongoing projected cycles.

Blomstedt's on Querstand will have the Third (1873 version) issued in Germany next week (VKJK 1017). After that the Fourth (version 1878/80) (VKJK 1018) should be available in the ensuing months. Blomstedt already had one Gewandhausorchester Leipzig Bruckner Third, with the same 1873 version and recorded in 1998, issued earlier. But that was only available within a box-set of 5 CDs and not separately. It was an excellent live performance of the 1873 version of B3 and it has occupied a firm place in my favourite recordings list. I'm holding my breath for the new one.

I guess Järvi's memorable Bruckner Seventh and Ninth might be followed by the enticing Eighth, which he is going to perform on 29 and 30 September in Frankfurt followed by concerts in Innsbruck, Vienna and Prague. It is just logical to deduce that the next CD in his cycle should be the Eighth. Although he performed the Second in a concert with the hr-sinfonieorchester on 31 March and 1 April this year, this less popular symphony may not overtake the Eighth in the issuing schedule.

Janowski's cycle already had Symphony Nos. 5-9 issued. It is indeed coincidental that he will perform the Third (1889 version) on the same nights as Järvi did for the Eighth, i.e. 29 and 30 September. He will come to the Fourth in January 2012 with a number of performances in Europe.

It may be too early to think that Kent Nagano is about to finish a Bruckner cycle, but Sony will issue two Bruckner recordings of his, the 7th and the 8th (1887 version) two weeks later in Japan and then internationally in July, both with the Bavarian State Orchestra. Nagano has recorded the 3rd and 6th with the Deutsche Symphony Orchestra on Harmonia Mundi, and the 8th with the same orchestra on an Arthaus DVD. His recording of the 1874 version of the Fourth on Sony was a nice one and was discussed in an earlier blog entry:
He only has the 5th and the 9th to record to complete a partial cycle, albeit across labels.

Although I haven't listened to Gerd Schaller's Bruckner, I'm interested in the early versions he has chosen for his cycle. I'd take his as analogous to Inbal's pioneering cycle in the 1980s when the latter first recorded many early versions of Bruckner's symphonies. Whether he will create the sort of sensation which Inbal did at that time is something one can only wait and see.

Staatskapelle Berlin has a very distinctive orchestral timbre and palette. I have fond memories of Barenboim's Beethoven symphony and concerto cycles with this orchestra in the Royal Festival Hall, London. The web video streaming of his performance of Bruckner's 4th-9th shows what Barenboim is famous for in Bruckner: rich and deep sound, broad and romantic (http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/tag/barenboim/). I hope Accentus Music will issue this June 2010 partial cycle on DVD or Blue-ray, but when I emailed them their answer was that they didn't know if and when it would be released. Another wait.

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