A new completion of the Finale of Bruckner Symphony No. 9 by Gerd Schaller

It is a significant endeavour by Gerd Schaller, but whether this attempt at completion will stay in the concert hall, only history will tell.

"Anton Bruckner, Ninth Symphony in D minor, four movements including finale based on original sources, supplemented, completed and premiered by Gerd Schaller."

Flashback to 19 August 1951

Orchestral concert at the Salzburg Festival with Furtwängler conducting the Vienna Philharmonic:

Mendelssohn: The Hebrides – concert overture

Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau)

Bruckner: Symphony No. 5

This concert is special in certain ways. It is unusually long. It features the then 26-year-old Fischer-Dieskau’s Salzburg Festival debut. Its recording includes the only extant Furtwängler recording of Bruckner 5 with the Vienna Philharmonic. 

The discography of this concert is quite typical of many of Furtwängler’s concert recordings – each piece of music was issued separately, often by different companies, at different times.

Not until 1982 was the whole concert issued on vinyls – by the German Furtwängler Society. Prior to that only the Bruckner symphony appeared first on LPs, issued by the Canadian company Rococo around 1975 (Rococo 2034). In the early 1980s, Furtwängler Societies in Germany and Japan issued recordings of the whole concert on LPs, and these quickly became collector’s items. The Italian company Fonit Cetra issued the Bruckner 5 together with the 1^st May 1951 Bruckner 7 in Rome in a box-set (FE 42) in 1984.

Rococo 2034

WFSG F667.497-498M

WFJ 6-7

Fonit Cetra FE42

When it came to the CD era, “official” releases became available, but mostly for the Bruckner 5. EMI issued the recording of this symphony in 1995 with the sound source from a private tape held by the conductor’s wife. The sound is fairly limited. When Orfeo issued the whole concert in their Salzburg Festival box set, the sound has improved. However there are two unofficial releases with surprisingly good sound. One is from Arkadia (1993) with a well balanced sound. Another is from Grand Slam (2015), which used a 2-track reel-to-reel tape as the sound source. The sound is immediate and full-bodied with an emphasis on the bass. It is a pleasure to listen to it.

Orfeo C409048L (8-CD set) and C336931B

From left to right: Grand Slam GS-2133; Orfeo C409048L; EMI CDH 5657502; Arkadia CDWFE 360.1

Many would prefer Furtwängler’s wartime Bruckner 5 with the Berlin Philharmonic, but this Vienna Philharmonic rendition has attractions in its own right, be it the woodwind timbre and playing, or the silky violin tone.  There may be imperfections in the ensemble, particularly in the finale, but the unique lure of Furtwängler’s approach to Bruckner more than compensates for them.

Furtwängler's Brahms Symphony No. 1 recording on 13 August 1947

Although the Salzburg Festival resumed soon after WWII in the summer of 1945, Furtwängler could only take part in it after his denazification in 1947. Thereafter he appeared in each subsequent year’s, except 1952’s when he was ill, until his death in 1954. What is unfortunate about his Salzburg Festival concert recordings is that the original tapes of Radio Rotweissrot, which was responsible for Salzburg Festival broadcasts up to 1954, no longer exist. Only a copy tape of his last concert in 1954 survives in the archives of the Salzburg Landesstudio. The majority of his Salzburg Festival concert recordings had their sound source from private collectors.

In 2004, upon the 50th anniversary of Furtwängler’s death, Salzburg Festival granted the right to Orfeo to release a special limited edition of his extant post-war concert recordings in 8 CDs: “Wilhelm Furtwängler – Die Salzburger Orchesterkonzerte 1949-1954” (C409048L). It was supposed to be exhaustive. However, it was known to collectors that a Brahms Symphony No. 1 recording dated 13 August 1947 had been released by Disques Refrain (DR920022) in the 1990s and later by Furtwängler societies in Japan, but this recording was not included in the box set. Although its authenticity has been doubted, mainly in Europe, Japanese collectors are adamant that this recording is the real thing, so much so that they added it as a bonus disc to the local Japanese release of this box set by King Records (KICC 90945-90952) in 2011. Obviously this particular box set was sold out rapidly and collectors’ attention to this 13 August 1947 recording soared. In 2012, Naoya Hirabayashi, a Japanese music critic who founded the Grand Slam label, released this recording (Grand Slam GS-2086) with the sound source being a DAT obtained from a German collector.

The Orfeo release and the Grand Slam GS-2086.

The poster of the local Japanese release of the Salzburg Festival box set with a bonus CD of this Brahms recording.

This Brahms 1 is a passionate account, even by Furtwängler’s standard, with mesmerising violin and beautiful woodwind playing. Once you’ve listened to it, you’ll understand why the Japanese collectors are so drawn to it.