Aged 84, Jochum was at the height of his powers when he conducted this
magnificent live performance: it was his last appearance with
the Concertgebouw Orchestra, and he fulfilled only one more concert engagement
before his death. Tahra are offering this two-disc set (in a slimline case)
for the price of a single CD and it is a valuable release, which eclipses
Jochums previous recordings of the work and is fully competitive with
the best of other conductors recordings of this symphony.
The year before Robert Simpson died, I asked him which conductor he had been
referring to when, in his book, The Essence of Bruckner (page 121
of the 1977 second edition) he complained about a recording of this symphony
which "halved the tempo" for the works apotheosis ("Poor Bruckner -
he has suffered as much from his friends as from his enemies", wrote Dr Simpson).
The conductor in question was Jochum, but he is not alone in his decision
to change gear near the conclusion of the finale: Haitink does so at the
same point (bar 564) in his 1988 recording with the Vienna Philharmonic but
not in his very different 1971 account with the Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Such a decision remains questionable when Karajans 1976 version on
DG with the Berlin Philharmonic demonstrates how much more impressive the
final pages are when the chorale is drawn inexorably into the tempo already
established. It is indicative of the jolt which the listener receives at
this point in Jochums previous recordings that Simpson should have
recollected that the tempo was halved, as the change is actually much less
than this, yet when the tempo slows in the Tahra release (at 2224"),
the speed alteration causes no concern whatsoever, because it arrives as
the culmination of a performance which the listener senses to have been more
controlled throughout and therefore more compelling than Jochums previous
recordings of the work. His overall view of the Fifth Symphony did not change
radically over the years, but when comparing his recordings of it, it is
inevitable that one notices modifications of small details in his interpretation,
the cumulative effect of which makes the 1986 performance even more satisfying
than its predecessors, despite the absence of any large-scale innovations.
Jochums association with the Fifth Symphony spanned many decades.
Bruckners original score (as distinct from the appalling 1893 edition,
published in 1896, a recording of which I have reviewed on this
web-site this month) remained unperformed until
1935, and it was this bona fide edition which was used for the first
recording of the work, made two years later in Dresden by Karl Böhm.
It was Böhm.s appointment in Dresden which enabled Jochum to take
over Böhm.s post in Hamburg in 1934 (where relatively-liberal
local political conditions allowed Jochum to hold this official post despite
his refusal to join the Nazi party) and it was with the Hamburg Philharmonic
that Jochum made his first recording of the symphony in 1938 for Telefunken,
which Tahra intend to reissue on CD.
In their booklet notes for the 1986 recording with the Concertgebouw Orchestra,
Tahra pay generous tribute to Jochums 1964 version with the same orchestra,
edited from two live performances; this was issued originally
by Philips and is now available on the Belart label, but even at budget price
it can receive only a lukewarm recommendation, as it was not recorded at
the Concertgebouw itself but in Ottobeuren Abbey, where the engineers balanced
the strings too closely, resulting in claustrophobic sound quality, despite
the pleasant resonance supplied by the venues acoustics. An earlier
1958 DG recording with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra presents a similar
interpretation in superior sound, but the 1980 recording for EMI with the
Staatskapelle Dresden has still greater impact, although the difference in
engineering is somewhat less than one might expect considering that 32 years
separate the two, and there is a blatant change of sound level at bar 484
in the finale. I can summon up even less enthusiasm for the 1980 recording
than for the 1964 version, not so much because of occasional insecurity from
the strings (there is an awkward moment as early as bar 61 of the opening
movement, where some of the second violins are still holding the F flat from
the previous bar instead of moving to E flat) but rather because the brass
section sounds raucous: it is true that in Karajans DG version the
Berlin Philharmonics splendid brass players are even more dominant,
but they are always well balanced internally, whereas the Dresden players
are not. The bass trombonist is the main culprit: he does not blend with
his colleagues, being unduly prominent throughout, so much so that at the
end, his contribution makes the final apotheosis, one of the supreme passages
in all music, sound banal and coarse.
Jochums greater subtlety intensifies the impact of the 1986 performance:
he is prepared to allow each awesome silence - not only of the introduction
but elsewhere too - a duration of either its full notated length or something
very close to it (Karajans DG version is let down by his impatience
in the introduction, cutting short the silences); the extra crescendo on
timpani with which he leads to the opening movements initial climax
at bar 49 (315") achieves more than merely a local effect, in that
this mighty end to the introduction leaves the listener expectant as the
main Allegro is launched. As in his previous recordings of the work,
Jochum still lowers the double basses an octave in bar 32 of the second movement
(257"), which the composer himself might well have done had the extended
low range of the instrument been available to him in the 1870s; Jochum does
likewise at bar 157 in the first movement (758"). Whereas in the third
movement he used to double the oboe and clarinet parts at bar 311 by the
horns (446", repeated at 1254"), here he reverts to Bruckners
original scoring. In general, Bruckners text is observed faithfully
and when one hears an unexpected balance, such as at bar 225 in the scherzo
(325", repeated at 1123"), where the second violins are encouraged
to play out, there is always genuine musical insight behind it, not just
a desire to make a novel effect. The orchestral playing is excellent, certainly
preferable to the live performances of Symphonies Nos.4, 6, 7
& 8 given by Jochum and this orchestra between 1970 and 1984, and previously
released by Tahra: listen to the passage marked etwas mehr langsam
at bar 83 in the finale (347") to hear how sonorous the orchestral
playing is.
Tahras booklet states that this recording is of a single concert on
4 December 1986, but the back inlay of the CD suggests that this release
may derive not only from that concert, but from the evening before too. Whatever
the case, there are very few mistakes in the playing: when the timpanist
forgets to enter at bar 525 in the finale (2121") it is one of the
few reminders which one receives that the orchestra is playing without the
safety net of studio conditions. The only disturbing blunder is at bar 82
in the slow movement (749"), where Jochums extremely-slow tempo
momentarily confuses the first clarinettist, who enters at too fast a speed
(it is a curious coincidence that an identical problem occurs in the same
bar at 729" on Tahras issue of a 1944 live performance
of this symphony conducted by Georg-Ludwig Jochum, Eugens younger brother,
an experienced Brucknerian himself). This riveting account of the slow movement
takes nearly 21 minutes and reaches a threatening climax at bar 194, making
the hushed ppp coda from bar 203 onwards more meaningful.
The acoustics of Amsterdams Concertgebouw are captured well by the
engineers: there is a tangible sense of being present in the hall, with a
bloom to the sound in the quieter moments and with an impressive feeling
of openness in the louder passages. This is not a digital recording, so
occasionally one hears a very faint pre-echo due to magnetic print
through on the open-reel tapes (such as before bar 137 in the finale
at 617"), a regular technical problem with analogue recordings of this
work, because of the many instances in the score of fortissimo chords which
follow on from complete silence. Tape hiss is minimal and the audience is
attentive, with only a few coughs.
The booklet reprints detailed comments by Jochum about performing the symphony;
during these remarks, which appeared originally in the booklet accompanying
the LP issue of his DG recording, Jochum explains how he arranges for extra
brass players to help out the main brass instrumentalists of the orchestra
near the end of the finale, because he is aware that by this point in the
score the latter may be too tired to sustain the fff climax. However,
there is an irony here: in a BBC reissue
of Horensteins 1970 performance one can hear someone in the audience
shout out "encore!" at 2426" during the concluding applause and perhaps
something similar happened in Jochums last Amsterdam concert, because
Tahras notes tell us that he repeated the entire 25-minute finale for
the audience, although this encore is not included on the CD;
so much for Jochums concern not to overwork his brass players!
It would be simplistic to claim that any one single recording of this towering
masterpiece can be considered superior to all others, but I have no doubt
that Jochums 1986 version is amongst the most rewarding available.
Despite the strong claims of several other brisker performances, the three
most compelling versions for me are the three most spacious ones, none of
which fit onto a single disc: the apocalyptic 1976 Karajan DG version with
the Berlin Philharmonic (for which his mono 1954 live performance
with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra on the Orfeo label is no real competition),
which should surely win over even the many listeners who are prejudiced against
this conductor; Sergiu Celibidaches uncompromising and austere account
with the Munich Philharmonic, deriving from two live concerts
in 1993, which has a unique visionary quality; and Jochums glorious
1986 performance, less interventionist than many of his earlier recordings
of Bruckners works in general, the music being allowed to flow more
naturally here. I would not wish my own collection to be without any of these
contrasting recordings: few readers will want to buy all three, but those
who choose the 1986 Jochum concert will not be disappointed by the excitement
and the generous expressivity of the music-making on offer here.
Reviewer
Raymond Clarke
Performance
Recording