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Anton BRUCKNER
Symphony No. 1 in C Minor (1866) unrevised Linz version, prepared by William Carragan
Adagio (1876) to Symphony No. 3 in D Minor

Royal Scottish National Orchestra - Georg Tintner
recorded 31st August and 1st September 1998 at Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow, Scotland.
Naxos 8.554430 [75.41] DDD
Amazon US  Crotchet

We are now gradually reaching the end of the complete Bruckner Symphonies by Georg Tintner for Naxos. Recorded over the past few years, in various locations this series has been consistently at the forefront of various versions of the symphonies of Bruckner. In addition this series is absolutely complete spanning as it does from the Study Symphony, (No. 00) through the entire cycle up to and including No. 9. All the recordings were in the can before Georg Tintner died, and more than any of his other limited recordings, this series will be an appropriate epitaph to this enigmatic conductor who until recently was almost unknown to the general record buying public.

In addition, Naxos has put us in their debt by allowing Tintner to record out of the norm versions of some of the symphonies, and adding, as with the present issue another version of a slow movement to a symphony (No. 3) which has been recorded separately and is also available. This gives us the opportunity to contrast and compare versions, an activity which gives the collector the excuse (if ever he or she needed it), of having more than one version of a work.

The current disc allows us to hear the version of Symphony No. 1 as Bruckner originally wrote, and which first saw the light of day as the work originally premiered in 1868, before it was tampered with and modified. How does it compare with the Linz and Vienna versions which we all know and love. The currently recorded work shares the same date (1868) with the Linz vesion, but is in fact different than the more well known opus, in having quite a few passages in the finale quite different than the other Linz version. These have been reconstructed by Professor Carragan in 1998, and the first three movements will not produce any startling changes.

In the last movement however, substantial passages have been reinstated which Bruckner had replaced with simpler less radical passages, and they will be heard with much interest by the listener, provided they know the other versions well.

How does the new disc compare with others currently available. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra does not perhaps have quite the sheen and power of some more famous Continental and American ensembles, but it can hold its own totally in terms of commitment to the conductor and in the providing the listener with a genuine performance to hear.

Naxos has been fortunate in terms of its venue in the Henry Wood Hall in Glasgow, as the recording comes over as having power, clarity and just enough resonance to make it sound like a performance in a concert hall.

The adagio from Symphony No. 3, has been included as it is complementary to the "proper" version supplied with the recording on 8.freer

John Phillips

See discussion of other Naxos Bruckner recordings


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