An ad hoc Blomstedt Bruckner cycle par excellence

If you take a look at my list of favourites for Bruckner 3rd and 4th, you'll notice that Blomstedt has featured in both. In fact although Blomstedt's Bruckner cycle on Querstand is yet to be completed (said to be released on 11 July next year to commemorate his 85th birthday), we can at this moment compile a home-made partial cycle (from the 3rd to the 9th) from his extant recordings. This ad hoc cycle will consist of excellent recordings and will be a sheer joy to listen to one by one.

Ad Hoc Blomstedt cycle (the 3rd is not shown here)

3rd: from the box-set as detailed in My Favourite Bruckner Recordings episode 9.

4th: from the Denon release (the one listed in My Favourite Bruckner Recordings episode 10b).

5th to 8th: from existing Querstand individual releases. His B7 on Denon recorded with the Staatskapelle Dresden has long been a prime recommendation by many critics, but I prefer the newer one in Leipzig on Querstand.

9th: from the Decca release (458964-2).

Apart from the 4th played by the Staatskapelle Dresden, all the others are by Gewandhausorchester Leipzig.

Among this ad hoc cycle of 7 symphonies, 5 are included in my favourite list. Those 2 who aren't only miss by a small margin. 

A brief review of some of these discs was posted before.

While his Querstand B3 recorded in 1998 is one of my favourites, I'm still looking forward to his new B3 to be available in 1-3 weeks' time according to one of the web shops. (Update: The release has been delayed till Dec 2011.) The 1998 one is a hard act to follow, and I'm very curious of how the new recording will fare.

The usual norm is that not every individual symphony in full or even partial Bruckner cycles enjoys the highest recommendation. This is the case in the commonly available cycles, e.g. Tintner's, Karajan's, Jochum's two, all of Asahina's, Barenboim's two, Haitink's, or even Wand's Cologne and NDR or Celibidache's EMI cycles. The only three exceptions are all incomplete cycles, one by Wand with the BPO (without the Sixth), another by Sinopoli (again without the Sixth, but maybe I can cheat with the archival recording of the Philharmonia Orchestra's), and the third by Furtwangler (again fate has its way with an incomplete Sixth). Now I think I can have the fourth one by Blomstedt. The added bonus for Blomstedt's is the excellent recorded sound in SACD format. Even if the remaining ones from the Querstand cycle are disappointing, I still have this ad hoc cycle to cherish.

(Revised 26 July 2011)