02 August 2009

Welcome to the Brucknerian family, Maestro Jansons






















This CD is the first official commercial Bruckner recording from Jansons and RCO. His previous Bruckner CDs are airchecks issued by suspect labels.

I first knew his name when his recordings of the Tchaikovsky symphonies with his Oslo ensemble won a rosette in the Penguin Guide some 20 years ago. Time flies.

The Third was taken from 3 performances 18 months apart (7 & 8 Feb 2007 and 28 Aug 2008) and the Fourth from 4 consecutive performances (17, 18, 19 and 21 Sep 2008).

This is cool-headed Bruckner in tuxedo. A welcome change to those who just want to "make a statement". There is much to offer here: good ensembleship, crystal clear transparency, clean and neat playing, a harmonious sound picture incorporating different sections of the orchestra without any one section being over-prominent, cultured and rich brass, pleasing woodwinds, mellow upper strings and sonorous lower strings, and above all a distinctive Concertgebouw sonic footprint.

It is palpably obvious that it was a very careful, if not at times gingerly, reading. However, if you want visceral impact from your Bruckner, you will be sorely disappointed. Not that the reading is loose, on the contrary, for example, the Finale of Symphony No. 3 was exceptionally well played and the tension was well maintained. The problem lies in the dynamic range.

There is no need for a health warning with this hybrid SACD/CD. Whatever the performance directions are, you will always get merely p, mf and f, maybe sometimes some half-hearted pp or ff, except perhaps in the Scherzi. I don't know whether it is the decision of Jansons or the recording engineer. It is easy to your ears at first, but if you follow the playing with a score in hand (or if you know the score by heart), you will get increasingly frustrated. There appears to be no difference among ppp, pp or p for that matter. Nonetheless it is a welcome addition to the Bruckner discography. Although I would still cherish the established ones, e.g. Karl Bohm's 3rd and 4th with the VPO, Gunter Wand's 4th with the BPO and his last with the NDR SO, Sawallisch's 4th with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Sinopoli's 3rd and 4th with the Staatskapella Dresden, and Schuricht's 3rd with the VPO, this Jansons/RCO newcomer has that mellow aroma and richness of a fine wine suitable for repeated tasting.

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5 comments:

  1. Funny fish :) but boring blog > <
    Can feed by clinking the mouse :O

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  2. Wow! How can you have this CD? It is supposed to be released on 31 Aug 2009 according to HMV Japan.
    Anyway thanks for the review.
    Mary Wang
    (mary_aa_wang@yahoo.com.hk)

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  3. This artical remind me of the same experience when i listen to the 1955(or1956) Altus Recording of Carl Schuricht.It is to my surprise
    that the conductor ignored so many marks(i dont know the correct word) on the score,mostly ppp and pp,yet he kept several crescendo(or poco a poco crescendo),at one point of first moment,the poco a poco crescendo is so strong that the sound of double bass make me once doubt that if the sound engineering add some unnature sound on the recording ... It is my opinion that Carl Schuricht refuse to use these marks because there're too many marks(ppp,pp,mf,f,retard...)that he simply cann't express his ideal image of the work with these marks on score.

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  4. Hey, I didn't know you've already reviewed it before the disc's release.
    Anyway, I can't agree more. The sound is very pleasing to the ear even at first hearing. It sounds very right and neat at every places. However, I still found there's something lacking. Now you mentioned it, I am beginning to see why. Could it be the sound engineering or the SACD format affecting the dynamic range? I don't know, for I have only stereo output and I'm no audiophile expert~
    But you're surely a Bruckner expert!!!

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  5. Thank you for your kind words mompou.
    However, I don't agree that I'm a Bruckner expert; I'd say I'm a fanatic Brucknerite only.

    As you can see in my comments on Jansons' new BRSO B7 recordings, the same dynamic range problem exists, so it's reasonable to infer that it is Jansons' interpretative intention, not the problem of the Tonmeister.

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