Anton BRUCKNER (1824-1896)
Symphony No. 5 in B flat major (1873-75) [73:23]
Hamburg Philharmonic/Simone Young
rec. live, Laeiszhalle, Hamburg, Germany, 2015
Rerviewed in Surround 5.0
OEHMS CLASSICS OC689 SACD [73:23]
Simone Young has now relinquished her roles in Hamburg and
is going freelance, according to her website. She will be a loss to the fine
Hamburg Philharmonic not least as a superb Brucknerian. This series of recordings
of the first versions of every Bruckner symphony has been top class. It was
conceived as one of her final recording commitments before departing, and
a wonderful finale it is. If one follows this performance with Simpson's
study, The Essence of Bruckner, to hand, almost every matter he raises
about the structure of this remarkable work shines through. The only, very
slight, issue I had was with the broadening of tempo at the very end of the
coda when the chorale theme returns. However, listening to Abbado's
fine Lucerne recording (Accentus) it was noticeable that his slightly faster
tempo actually diminished the impact rather than enhanced it. This is splitting
hairs, both are excellent.
What we have on the present disc is a quite magnificent account of Bruckner's
most difficult symphony. So clearly does Young present its progress that one
is able to follow the unique structure. As an example, the huge opening section
of the finale, some 222 bars, during which Bruckner lays out his thematic
materials from earlier in the symphony as the basis for the vast polyphonic
coda, are all clearly delineated. In Young's hands they do not sound
like a set of bits spread before the listener but an ordered laying out of
plans. I imagine the practicalities of this involve controlling tempo changes,
dynamic contrasts and orchestral balances. The conductor has to first know
what she wishes to do with each segment, which involves intensive study of
the score, and then conveying this to a responsive orchestra by good baton
technique.
The CD has a huge dynamic range, always sounds detailed, clear and spacious
in Oehms' excellent recording. The opening of the Fifth is very quiet
indeed, fifteen bars of pp string music, a mixture of pizzicato basses
and a long-drawn theme, leading to a fortissimo brass outburst like a huge
organ. Set the volume to just hear the opening and the brass are very loud
indeed. This is expert balancing. Congratulations to engineer Christian Feldgen
for a job well done.
The notes by Michael Lewin are typically thorough and raise very interesting
points about the symphony as the axis of Bruckner's oeuvre. He also
writes of it as the work in which Bruckner proves to a disrespectful world
that he is a great symphonist. There is a long tradition of recording the
timings of movements in Bruckner: for the record: 1 - 19:56, 2 - 16:59, 3
- 13:02, 4 - 23:23. Glancing at the gigantic listing on the Bruckner Society
website showed these to be very standard. The extremes are occupied by Celibidache
and Neeme
Järvi who manage to differ by about 27 minutes. Even allowing for differing
editions this is rather large.
Dave Billinge
Reviews of ther releases in this series
Symphony 00
Symphony 0
Symphony 1
Symphony 2
Symphony 3
Symphony 4
Symphony 6
Symphony 7
Symphony 8
Symphony 9
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