Anton Bruckner

Exclusive 5 CD hardcover box with Knappertsbusch’s signature in gold foil imprint.

This production is of high documentary value and definitely one of Audite's priority productions for 2010. During the early 1950s, before the Karajan era, the conductor Hans Knappertsbusch (1888-1965) worked intensively with the Berlin Philharmonic. The core-period of this cooperation from 1950 until 1952 in particular is documented by high-quality recordings made by RIAS Berlin, both of live concerts and of studio productions. For the first time, the original tapes from the RIAS archives have been made available, which means that these CDs offer the highest possible technical quality. This 5-CD set includes on the one hand a variety of symphonic works and on the other ‘light music’: two differing facets of Hans Knappertsbusch’s repertoire. The recordings of this edition convey a fascinating view on Knappertsbusch’s art. This comparison of live and studio recordings illustrates the influence of medium on Kna’s interpretational aesthetic: in concert, he takes greater liberties in tempi and dynamics than in the more objective studio location. This is also shown by the comparison of concert and studio recordings of Schubert’s ‘Unfinished’ Symphony and Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony, two key-works in this edition. At the same time, the recordings disprove the one-sided view of Knappertsbusch as a master of slow tempi. Whereas he has a more expansive take on time in Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony, he tends to choose even more fluid tempi in his interpretations of the great Bruckner symphonies than Bruckner specialists such as Gunter Wand.

Live Recording Semperoper Dresden September 2009.

"In this work Thielemann opened many a door and window, showing the astonished audience what beautiful things lie behind them that are beyond verbal description ... Perhaps the discovery and wonderful musical realization of these beauties is the real surprise in this great concert." (Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten)

"It was that single minute that decided everything. When the last notes of Bruckner's Eighth had died away at the end of Christian Thielemann's magnificent guest performance as conductor of the Dresden Staatskapelle, a silence that enfolded hundreds lasted an endless minute before the applause broke out like a thunderstorm. In precisely that minute of silence for the beauty of music in the Semperoper on September 13, Thielemann probably made his decision to come to Dresden as principal conductor". (Die Zeit)

This is the fifth volume in this series. Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony is performed by the Mozarteumorchester in the second version from 1890, in the edition by Leopold Nowak. “As if he never conducted anything different…Bolton senses suspense progressions and musical flavours…Bolton and Bruckner – maybe the greatest and most pleasant CD surprise recently.” Munich Mercury

This performance was recorded in Munich in 1959. The soloists include Annelies Kupper and Elisabeth Fellner-Köberle sopranos, Hertha Töpper alto and Lorenz Fehenberger tenor. The bonus is Jochum conducting Bruckner’s First Symphony, also in Munich in 1959.

In this collection of highlights of religious choral music, the Wiltener Boys Choir under their director Johannes Stecher bring their special sound to works ranging from Gregorian Chant to the present day. The CD includes extracts from Mozart’s Laudate Dominum and Mendelssohn’s Elijah, as well as Franck’s Panis Angelicus and Lloyd Webber’s Pie Jesu.

The December 1981 concerts, with works by Beethoven and Bruckner, were predominantly romantic in character. First came Beethoven’s Second (actually first) Piano Concerto in B flat. Tennstedt supplied a "sensitively restrained accompaniment to the Argentinian pianist Bruno Leonardo Gelber" (Klaus Geitel in the Berliner Morgenpost). Gelber had played in a manner quite free from what we associate with the later Beethoven style: "nimble, gentle in tone, and in the Adagio a touching youthful reflectiveness." In the Tagesspiegel Walter Kaempfer praised Gelber’s commitment to this neglected work: "The pianist’s faultless artistry, captivating in its sonorities and delicate articulation, combined ideally well with the orchestra playing in a kind of communication rarely experienced." Gelber reminisced in an interview with the Argentinian journalist Cecilia Scalisi in 2009 : "The Second Concerto is full of contrasts, but is at the same time fresh, light, youthful. It has to be played with gallantry and assurance. Most wonderful of all is the cadenza, charming to listen to, full of energy and character like the mature Beethoven brought back into his own youth – most exciting! I always ask the conductor to give special attention to the contrasts between legato and staccato, for this articulation pervades everything that the music contains. I got to know Tennstedt in Kiel, and we performed together in Berlin. He was one of the finest conductors I have worked with, certainly a great interpreter of Beethoven." In the E flat Romantic Symphony of Bruckner that followed, Tennstedt was from the outset "as if on fire, and the flames soon spread over the whole orchestra" (Walter Kaempfer). Hans-Jörgen von Jena (Volksblatt) commented on the special characteristics of this interpretation: "The brooding Bruckner gave way to Bruckner the melodist. The Philharmonic were able to move freely and calmly on the high plateau that they have established from the beginning for all their Bruckner performances. Brass choruses and shimmering strings seemed to be well within the limits of their powers; the sound was beautiful throughout, richly expressive and lucid. Expansive phrases, broad crescendos, a firm control of formal features, all of this seemed quite natural. There was no hint of that other Bruckner – the massively structured, archaic character – than can appear in this symphony as in others."

from the booklet note © Helge Grünewald, 2010