A new, cute and immensely popular Bruckner-Ikonographie in Japan

The six composers in the new pins series designed by Kazuo Ozawa and issued by Bookunion in Japan

The popularity of Anton Bruckner among classical music fans in Japan has never been in doubt, but how immensely popular it is is sometimes out of everyone's expectation. The six pins shown above are to be issued on 1 December 2012, but pre-orders for the Bruckner pin are in so overwhelming amount that this item had to be de-listed soon after it appeared on HMV Japan's online shop. However, all the other 5 pins are still available at the time of writing. If we assume that all the six different pins are issued in the same quantity, then Bruckner appears to be more popular than Beethoven or Mahler here. And if we speak of the 3 B's, traditionally referring to Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, this pins series has taken the position to replace Brahms with Bruckner. This may only be a tongue-in-cheek explanation. The official introduction has given the reasons for the choice of composers: 3 "kings of composers", namely Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, and 3 "modern" composers popular in Japan, namely Bruckner, Mahler and Shostakovich.

These are small nickel plated pins measuring H26 X W13-16mm and 0.7mm thick. The listed price is 630 Yen (tax included). The designer/illustrator is the famous cartoonist on classical music in Japan, Kazuo Ozawa (小澤一雄). 

China Philharmonic Orchestra played Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 -- video streaming

Bruckner's symphonies have seldom been played by orchestras in China except perhaps recently. It'd thus be interesting to have an opportunity to view such a concert. By sifting through the China Central Television's (CCTV) web-based CCTV Concert Hall archive, I managed to find a complete Bruckner concert on video streaming. It is a concert of the China Philharmonic Orchestra (中国爱乐乐团 ) conducted by Okko Kamu on 13/3/2009 performing Bruckner's Symphony No. 4. This concert has a special significance to this orchestra: it was its first Bruckner concert ever since it was formed in May 2000 in Beijing.

 

 

 

Here is the link.

 

Enjoy!


P.S. In the CCTV archive, there are also video clips of Daniel Harding's Beijing concert on 9/3/2012 with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra on Bruckner's Fifth. Only the last 3 movements are included: Adagio (excerpt), Scherzo (complete) and Finale (excerpt). But beware, these excerpts are preceded by advertisements.

A series that took 10 years to complete -- Anthology of the RCO

In September, a blog entry was made introducing Volume 7, the last, of the Anthology of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra series.  Now it has arrived and joined its 6 predecessors in the series. Ten years have elapsed since the release of the first volume, issued by Q-Disc (the RCO Live label has not been founded before 2004), in 2002. All through these years, many wonderful live recordings in this series have given me so much pleasure that I was always on the lookout for the next release.

At first sight, it all looks nothing special: an old orchestra issuing some recordings from its archive. But when we realise that the music, conductors and soloists were carefully chosen to represent the legacy of a great orchestra and a tradition of sound which not everyone is fortunate or old enough to experience in person, we will come to appreciate the significance of these recordings and get to be thankful that this Anthology series does exist.

Here's a picture of the whole family:

Anthology of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Vol. 1-7

(I now realise that the picture of Volume 7 I posted in the previous blog entry is only an old draft from the product information sheet, and the issued product has a different cover art as shown above.)

The Mehta Bruckner 8 is split on 2 CDs with the first 3 movements on CD7 and the Finale on CD8. It was a recording of the concert on 2 December, 2005, and the 1955 Nowak edition was used. Here are the timings: 15'45", 15'18", 28'47", 22'53".

P.S. As there is much interest in knowing the music included in Vol. 7, here is a scan of the track listing printed on the bottom of the box. Please click the picture to enlarge.