MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS
Sound Samples & Downloads

Anton BRUCKNER (1824-1896)
Symphony No.6 in A major (1879-1881)
Mozarteumorchester Salzburg/Ivor Bolton
rec. live, Large Hall of the Salzburg Festspielhaus, 23 and 25 October 2010. Stereo. DDD
OEHMS CLASSICS OC404 [54:36]

Experience Classicsonline



 
Ivor Bolton's approach doesn't suit every Bruckner symphony, but he has some valuable and rare insights to offer on the Sixth. Previous instalments in this cycle have lacked weight and dramatic integrity. This Sixth is clearly in the same mould, but the benefits outweigh the losses, especially in the details he brings out from the score, which dozens of conductors before him have either overlooked or sacrificed for the unity of the whole.
 
The Mozarteumorchester Salzburg lives up its name. If it weren't for the photograph of what is clearly a full-size orchestra in the liner, I would have sworn that this was a chamber ensemble, albeit a large-ish one. The strings in particular seem to be lacking a few desks in each section. If that is an illusion, it is a result of chamber-like playing from the strings. They never go for big full-bow sounds, opting instead for clear and precise textures, and creating contrast though variety of articulation rather than extreme dynamic contrasts. The Austrian character of the string playing is evident throughout, especially in the earthy, rustic sounds of the slow movement and scherzo.
 
The woodwind and brass follow suit. There is some wonderfully distinctive playing from the woodwind soloists, especially the oboe, who is heavy on the vibrato, but not to a fault. The brass playing is just excellent. Bolton never asks them to go overboard on the climaxes, enabling them to maintain a fine tone throughout. The ensemble within the trumpet and horn sections is ideal. As with the strings, the range of articulations, especially from the horn and trumpet soloists is a revelation.
 
The more modest dynamics from the strings allow a good number of wind counterpoints to come through that you may never have heard before. Bolton makes a point of faithfully reproducing all the articulations in the score. That often means that phases are shaped more through the variety of attack on the various notes than through dynamics or rubato. The rubato is perhaps a little too literal; tempo changes are given as specified in the score, but rubato for phrasing is much more subtle.
 
Bolton compensates for the lack of weight in the orchestra's sound with some expansive tempos, especially in the first two movements. That is a risky strategy but it pays off, returning a sense of grandeur to the music. He is not afraid to drive the finale on when required. The last five minutes succeed primarily because of the increase in tempo and energy he injects.
 
For all that, the lack of weight in the orchestral sound remains a problem. There are a number of places were the music comes to a halt and after the brief caesura the full string section enters with a large, warm chord. Bolton tries to make the coming entry more spectacular by drawing out the pause, but the thin sound from the strings, when it comes, is usually a disappointment.
 
Otherwise this is an excellent recording. The focus on detail really justifies many of Bruckner's compositional decisions. More grandiose recordings make the work out to be more like the monumental Eighth or Ninth. It is always going to suffer by comparison with them, so in many ways Bolton's approach - to treat the often delicate textures with more care and attention - better represents its more modest aspirations. 

Gavin Dixon

 
Masterwork Index: Bruckner 6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.