Anton Bruckner

Premiered in Vienna on 26 February 1899 under the direction of Gustav Mahler, Bruckner's Sixth Symphony was never altered or revised by its composer, which shows his exceptional confidence in it. He was, indeed, especially proud of its compositional audacities, and nicknamed it Die Keckste (‘the cheekiest'). Right from its first performance it attracted attention for its visionary beauty.

Bernard Haitink is internationally renowned for his interpretations of Bruckner and is widely recognised as the world’s leading Bruckner conductor. Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony, ‘Romantic’, conjures up visions of mediaeval knights, huntsmen and enchanted woodland, particularly through the prominent use of the horn in the work. One of his most popular pieces, it was treated to many revisions by the composer and this recording features the second version of the 1877/8 Nowak edition (published 1953) with the 1880 Finale.

Bernard Haitink’s previous recordings with LSO Live include his Grammy Award-nominated Beethoven Symphony cycle, which also received the title of ‘Benchmark’ Beethoven Cycle from BBC Music Magazine. Haitink has also released the complete Brahms Symphonies and Strauss’s ‘Eine Alpensinfonie’ to international acclaim.

Recorded 17th August 1960.

“Conducting is only a means to an end, never an end in itself. Making music is everything – and the less conducting draws attention to itself, the more beautiful the music will be and truly stir our hearts”.

Joseph Keilberth joined the Karlsruhe Staatstheater at the age of seventeen as a répétiteur. Ten years later he became general music director, the youngest at the time in Germany. On Furtwängler’s recommendation he was appointed chief conductor of the German Philharmonic Orchestra of Prague for the war years, moving to the Dresden State Opera (then in the Russian zone) in 1945. He remained in that position until 1950, by which time he had achieved a bizarre reunion with his Prague orchestra, now renamed the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and newly resident in that town in western Germany.

Keilberth was a great Wagnerian conductor and recorded the first-ever stereo Ring – now available as a celebrated Testament release in a 14-CD set – SBT141412.

If both the Bruckner and the Schubert overture which opened this 1960 concert were Keilberth regulars, the Berg Violin Concerto was a newcomer to his repertoire that became a personal favourite; it was also his first-ever Berg score. He prepared it for the first time in December 1955 for a Hamburg State Opera concert with André Gertler. “It’s really coming together now”, he noted, “but much still sounds as if it’s wrong”. A little later he wrote to his son Thomas: “I’m pleased that the Berg Concerto now means more to you. For me, it’s the only 12-tone work that I like”. Then, by the 1965/66 season, Keilberth was replying to a questionnaire about his “Ten 20thcentury Masterworks of Music”. The Berg Concerto had become his No.2 choice, just ahead of Stravinsky’s Dumbarton Oaks but losing out to Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler Symphony.

Daniel Barenboim’s Bruckner odyssey, recorded with the Chicago Symphony between 1973 to 1981, proved his credentials as a true Brucknerian. ”Barenboim’s Brucknerian instincts, and his orchestra’s, are formidable“ – Gramophone. The set also includes the Te Deum, with powerful soloists, the rarely-heard Helgoland for men’s chorus and orchestra, and Psalm 150 for soprano chorus and orchestra.

Soloists include Yvonne Minton, Jessye Norman, Samuel Ramey, David Rendall, and Ruth Welting.

There were occasions during the three decades when the LP record ruled supreme – from the 1950s to the 1970s – when the chemistry between an orchestra, its conductor and their record company combined to work a magic that the commitment of long-term recording contracts quite often made possible. Karajan and the Philharmonia; Ansermet and the Suisse Romande; Dorati and the Minneapolis; Münch and the Boston Symphony, Cluytens and the Paris Conservatoire and Previn and the London Symphony are all prime examples of such collaborations. All of these produced recorded performances that are as fine today as they ever were and are all well-represented in the current CD catalogues. Until now there has been one successful recording collaboration that seems almost to have slipped under the radar: the Pittsburgh Symphony, William Steinberg and the Capitol Records producer, Richard C. Jones.

This set of 20 CDs presents virtually everything that was recorded by Steinberg during the seven years that he recorded for Capitol: from the Schubert Second Symphony, recorded on 9 February 1952, to the Italian Serenade by Wolf, from 16 April 1959. There are some exceedingly good performances in this set and the recordings show that Capitol Records were at the technical forefront when it came to sound quality and production values.

The earlier recordings were, of course, made in mono and come up surprisingly well on CD. From 1956 onwards the recordings were made in stereo. There are a selection of recordings, both mono and stereo, that are here being released on CD for the first time.

Also included are the recordings of Strauss that Steinberg and Jones made with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, in June 1957.

Getting to know these wonderful 1950s recordings from a conductor who, perhaps, didn't always get the critical acclaim that was his due, will be an exciting and rewarding experience for any prospective purchaser.

Anton Bruckner’s Third Symphony - the first fully valid example of his extraordinary symphonic idea: a combination of resplendent sounds and church service, as well as demonic romanticism and the comforting belief in heaven.

“I was just going from the theatre building to Wahnfried at 5 o’clock when the master of all masters hurried towards me with open arms, embraced me and said: ‘Dear friend, the dedication is justified, you are giving me great pleasure with the work’.” (Anton Bruckner)

Anton Bruckner’s Third Symphony pays tribute to the deeply revered Richard Wagner, to whom it is also dedicated.

The live recording of the concert on 30th January 1970 in the Herkules-Saal of the Munich Residence with Rafael Kubelik and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra is available again, now in CD format.