The combination of the right repertoire and
the engineering wizardry of HDTT has proven to be a killer combination
in the relatively brief time this company has been releasing back-catalogue
recordings. Reviews on this website alone in recent weeks have
been full of praise for their revivification of famous performances
of Mahler’s
First
and
Third
Symphonies conducted by Horenstein as well as
de
Falla’s The
three cornered hat from
Frühbeck de Burgos. My own first-hand experience has included
a
magnificent Shostakovich Cello
Sonata from
Daniel Shafran and a
Karajan/Richard
Strauss disc that made it into my half-dozen ‘best of the
year’. So it was with considerable hope and expectation that I
looked forward to listening to this recording - previously unknown
to me - of Bruckner’s towering
Symphony No. 9 in D minor
from Carl Schuricht and the Vienna Philharmonic. Where possible
HDTT try to source commercial reel-to-reel material but when that
medium is unavailable – as apparently here – they use pristine
LPs. This performance was recorded for EMI in 1961 and since then
has reappeared in numerous incarnations on LP including the bargain,
but much loved, CFP label. I have no doubt that the re-mastering
engineers have extracted every available iota of recorded information
and the disc sounds reasonably well although there is a persistent
low rumble that becomes noticeable while listening over headphones.
However, in this instance it would be wrong to suggest that they
have been able to achieve the quantum improvements in audio quality
that has marked their work elsewhere. The Vienna Philharmonic
as recorded for EMI in 1962 has none of the bloom and rich warmth
that characterises their sound as captured by Decca for example
at exactly the same time. We speak a lot about the ‘sound’ of
an orchestra but far less often about the sound of a record label.
Clearly EMI in Austria in the early 1960s were technically inferior
to Decca. The stereo sound-stage is quite crudely split left to
right with little front to back depth. Yes the horns are powerfully,
if somewhat raucously caught, but similarly the woodwind – a particularly
sour oboe – have an edge and a synthetic prominence that destroys
much of Bruckner’s organ-like chord voicings.
None of which would matter to any degree were the performance
of such stature as to disarm criticism. Regretfully, I would have
to say that this remains a resolutely earthbound and stubbornly
unmystical Ninth. Now for sure, I understand that in the intervening
half century since this was recorded we have become ever more
beguiled by the Karajan-led and richly upholstered ‘heavenly’
Bruckner but even in the age of austere authenticity this comes
across as a pretty plain reading. Yet herein lies my real frustration
with Schuricht’s interpretation. If, throughout, we were presented
with the notes and nothing but the notes one could argue that
we were being given an austere vision. But no, in the midst of
a brisk traversal - he completes the first movement in 20:09 (even
Walter in his famously no-nonsense 1959 Columbia SO version takes
23:54) - Schuricht suddenly, and in defiance of any kind of musical
logic he might be trying to create, extends anacrucis beats (creating
5/4 bars almost in a 4/4 passage) and adds pauses and extended
rallentandi where none are marked. At best it sounds mannered;
at worst perverse. Take the very opening; after 4 bars of a pedal
tremolando D in the strings the 8 horns intone a little fanfare
figure based on a D minor triad. Crucially the pickup note is
a semi-quaver (16
th note). This is answered by the
trumpets and timpani quietly repeating the tonic Ds in a heavier
quaver (8
th) note pattern as if to emphasise the tonic.
Schuricht allows his horns to elongate the pick-up semiquaver
and the contrast is lost. Jochum, also on EMI, with the Dresden
Staatskapelle perfectly delineates this tiny difference but in
that single instant - it does repeat throughout the movement and
Bruckner is exceptionally careful with his rhythmic definition
- he achieves a tension and momentum beyond Schuricht; this from
a conductor whom the liner-notes tells us; “... invented a clear,
almost objective style of conducting, based on fast tempos and
flexible but cleanly articulated orchestral playing …”. Take another
example from the first movement – rehearsal letter D in the Eulenburg/Nowak
edition score [3:57]: the marking
langsamer allows Schuricht
to indulge in some swooning phrasing that for me totally undermines
the bedrock of the music. In the spirit of comparing like with
like I referred mainly to the Walter/Columbia Symphony Orchestra
recording still available at bargain price. This performance does
for me fulfil the ideal of passionate objectivity (some comically
approximate timpani tuning apart) and even the ‘standard’ CD transfer
seems superior to the EMI LP-sourced engineering offered here.
Take the passage mentioned above – Walter phrases beautifully
but with an essential simplicity that seems truer to the spirit
of Bruckner – more of the open air and fields than the lace handkerchief
drawing room ballad of Schuricht.
The second movement Scherzo marked
Bewegt, lebhaft is as
vehement and possessed as any music Bruckner ever wrote. Schuricht
is a good minute faster than Walter but a half minute slower than
Jochum. But timing tells only part of the story; Walter’s tempo
allows the music to stamp like some great giant’s clumsy dance
with the repeated brass chords grinding against each other as
a musical volcano threatens to erupt. Conversely Jochum is full
of malevolent glee – his pizzicato strings playfully outlining
their diminished chords and the brass spikily articulating the
clashing harmonies. Schuricht literally lies somewhere between
but to my ears without the personality of either. The trio of
this movement is unusual in that it is marked to be played faster
than the material that precedes it. All three of the versions
here maintain this tempo relationship but Jochum pushes his Dresden
orchestra along at an extraordinary speed – which results in a
rather soupy slowing into the trio second subject at B. Schuricht
does the same, unmarked, slowly but compounds this ‘sin’ by then
indulging in more arch phrasing. Walter, positively serene and
almost Schubertian in the opening of the trio is able to sail
into the second subject with a graceful turning of the musical
corner but a logical maintenance of his basic tempo thereby ensuring
a structural coherence to the movement.
As is well documented Bruckner struggled to complete the finale
of this symphony for most of the last decade of his life. I often
wonder whether part of this struggle was due to the fact that
at the close of the third movement
Langsam feierlich he
had achieved one of the towering high points of music and was
at a loss as to quite where to go next. The music moves from yearning
to doubt and conflict through to a radiant conciliatory close.
The movement centres on E as its tonality which is about as far
away from the ‘home’ key of D as it is possible to be but Bruckner
disturbs this immediately by having the first violins who open
the movement alone move from a B to a C natural an octave and
a semitone above. They are directed to stay on the same (low)
G string for this leap which instantly creates a dramatic and
achingly poignant opening. Schuricht, in obeying the
markig,
breit direction, makes the phrase clumsily pointed. Walter
seamlessly flows through the notes – only the essential timbre
telling you his players are still on their G strings. It is Jochum
here who maximises the drama – having delivered the fleetest Scherzo
his is now the slowest third movement – an extraordinary seven
minutes behind Schuricht. In essence he chooses to feel 8 quavers
in each bar, Schuricht prefers the crochet pulse. In lesser hands
than Jochum the results would be turgid but he has the flawless
long-spanning control and his players the technical resource to
make this utterly compelling. Schuricht seems almost perfunctory
by his side. It is Walter in this movement who finds the middle
way – quite literally - clocking in at 23 minutes. The climax
of the movement is the famous chord where Bruckner piles semitonal
clashes on top of each other – it’s a moment of chaos and collapse
BUT Bruckner did just write it as a crochet with a pause on the
following silent beat. Schuricht, maddeningly, extends the clashing
chord and then all but eliminates the silent pause. The drama
should surely be that the implication of that chord is left to
hang in the following silence – a sense of ‘whither now?’. Jochum
slightly extends the chord but is already at a significantly slower
tempo. His great triumph here is the shocked frozen silence that
follows – and his Dresden brass are more able to unleash a true
triple
fff in the immediately preceding passage than their
Vienna counterparts of 1962. Walter holds the chord a fraction
too long and does not make as much of the pause as he might but
it is still a major improvement on Schuricht. The ‘whither now’
proves to be this incredible ascent leaving behind earthly things
– Bruckner throws in little thematic references to his own Third,
Eighth and Seventh Symphonies here as well as his
Mass in D
– before, with one last gesture of farewell, the four horns
rise to a richly-voiced E major chord from the full brass over
pizzicato strings. Schuricht’s Vienna horns cannot quite get the
chord to settle – something that causes no problems for Jochum
or Walter. One last irritation – the horns should come off with
the strings final pizzicato; Schuricht allows them a good extra
four seconds overhang. There is no justification for this in the
score and adds to the fact that the placing of the three pizzicato
chords bear no relation to the tempo of the previous passage at
all. My incomprehension is complete.
Clearly, this is a performance that has been in and out of the
catalogue a lot in the last five decades so it must resonate for
others more than myself. HDTT believe it to be a performance worthy
of their considerable expertise and I feel part of the restoration
process should be some kind of historical comment on this specific
performance and why it was chosen. Likewise, wherever the information
is available, I think collectors drawn to this type of recording
would enjoy having information about original recording producers,
dates and venues as well as the detailed information of the mastering
equipment used that is present – the information I have given
above is not present on the CD. I notice from the www.abruckner.com
website that there have been at least six other recordings of
this work conducted by Schuricht although this is probably the
most commercially available now and historically. So a work he
obviously cared about deeply, but a vision of the work I do not
share.
When reviewing other releases of this label I have lamented certain
elements of the presentation of these discs which simply do not
measure up to the quality of the engineering/restoration that
has been achieved. So it is again here, the liner-notes are presented
on a light-weight card fold-over and consist of a not very well
written or informative ‘analysis’ (I use the inverted commas advisedly)
of the work as well as the brief pen portrait of the conductor
I quoted from above. The cover art-work set on an unappealing
mustard coloured background adds nothing to the experience. This
is being promoted as a premium product to discerning collectors
and it should be presented as such. As I hope I have made clear
I have nothing but praise for the restoration that the HDTT engineers
have achieved. One big flaw that was present on the Strauss disc
I mentioned before is repeated here – the ridiculously short gap
between movements. In a work of this epic nature you need at least
ten seconds between movements. Here we do not get even two. If
not this performance I would urge collectors to seek out the best
of the HDTT catalogue because when the music-making matches the
quality of the engineering the results are stupendous. Unless
you hold this version of Bruckner’s transcendent symphony close
to your heart this would not be the place to start that exploration.
Nick Barnard
[NOTE: In the press copy sent for review two of the movements
were reversed in order. HDTT assure us this will be corrected
before sale]
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Carl Schuricht
