Ruminations in a hot afternoon

Today is a public holiday in Hong Kong, thanks to the Dragon Boat Festival. I was still busy cleaning my old CDs, and the turn this afternoon is my Jochum's Bruckner collection. I took out the DG box-set and only now do I appreciate how well presented it is. Within the thin cardboard box are three jewel-cases housing the symphonies in ascending order, Nos. 1-3, 4-6 and 7-9. A further gem is the CD booklet, with essays by Constantin Floros and Eugen Jochum, in the original German followed by English and French translations. I've always enjoyed reading Floros' analyses. His book on Mahler symphonies is exemplary and has served as a guiding post for my understanding of Mahler's symphonies. His 'new' book on Bruckner, translated into English, is now waiting for a reprint, as the first printing was selling very well. I got this information from the publisher when I tried to order this book. Unfortunately many essays written by Floros in many other CD booklets were not translated into English. Many such essays were written by different authors in their native language and I've seen 4 different authors in a single booklet.

That brought me to think about DG as the leading recording company to issue Bruckner symphony cycles in the 1960s and 1970s to early 1980s. But that was just history after Karajan died. Abbado's early attempts to record a cycle with the Vienna Philharmonic were not continued. Together with the massive changes in the classical music market, that gives me a feeling that the glorious days of DG have almost gone to the winds. If there is any sign of a future DG Bruckner cycle it may well be Thielemann, but apparently his intended cycle with the Munich Philharmonic might come to a premature halt after the unhappy events with this orchestra, and he is going to Dresden anyway.

It is my usual practice to (largely) restrict my attention to official commercial releases only, as the recordings from pirate labels cannot reliably be assumed to be coming from the conductor, orchestra or even date as shown on the CD cover. And very often there is no way to substantiate their claims, at least as far as I am concerned. However I must confess that there were times when I gave in to temptations because the recording was (claimed to be) from a conductor I really care about. One example is Rafael Kubelik. His Bruckner Sixth is one example. As there is yet to be an official release, I could only turn to issues from suspect labels to quench my thirst for it. 

At another moment I was enjoying Kurt Sanderling's Bruckner 3rd. That brought my thoughts to one of his most famous recordings, the mono Rachmaninov Symphony No. 2 for DG. So I quickly searched through the piles of CDs in one of the cabinets to take it out for a listen. At the same time I took out his later recording of the same symphony with the Philharmonia Orchestra for Teldec. This latter recording is special for a very broad first movement (26'09" !). Some may find the long cut in the last movement (in both of his recordings) off-putting, but there is no denying the intensity and passion of the readings. The music simply breathes. A really enjoyable afternoon.