Bruckner: Symphony No. 6 in A major

The fourth instalment of Mario Venzago’s survey of Bruckner’s Symphonies. There are many recordings on the market which make it difficult for strikingly different interpretations, but this series has received great acclaim for its originality and the way it challenges previous conceptions.

On the series previous release, Gramophone said ‘The principle virtue of the performance is in its agility, leanness and considerable subtlety of expression, the way it challenges the Bruckner cliché (weight, breadth, monumentality) with something utterly new’.

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.

Praising Riccardo Muti’s ‘ability to keep his eye on a point of culmination and to thrust it home with the maximum power, emotional as well as dynamic,’ Gramophone described these interpretations of two magnificent symphonies as ‘above all, Bruckner dramatized, not only with Muti’s dramatic thrust and his fearless pursuit of the widest contrasts, but with his 'vocal' treatment of the great Bruckner melodies, [making] one even imagine the opera that Bruckner might have written’.

Recorded live at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, London, on 4 November 2009.

Anton Bruckner began writing his Sixth Symphony after the Third had received a disappointing public reaction, and the Fourth and Fifth symphonies still remained unheard. His indefatigable need to compose here results in a work of graceful unity; and one that contains some of the loveliest music he ever wrote.

This fine recording, under Christoph Eschenbach, is the fourth Bruckner Symphony disc to be released on the LPO Label: the Fourth, Seventh and Eighth, conducted by Tennstedt, were released in 2006, 2007 and 2008 respectively.

Eschenbach is one of the most interesting and inspiring conductors around. And this recording of Bruckner’s Sixth is testimony to this inspiring talent. Eschenbach draws the most amazingly rich sonority from the LPO. Eschenbach’s interpretation and intent is clear from the outset: the first movement opening with a beautifully articulated rhythmic motive in the strings, wisely with the first and second violins divided. The Adagio is not especially slow, yet never sounds hurried or pushed. As the Adagio progresses it seems to naturally slow, but not enough to ever feel as it drags. In the Finale Eschenbach is a master in conveying a sense of the mysterious or sacred emerging.

Following his Félix award-winning recording of Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 with the Orchestre Métropolitain, Yannick Nézet-Séguin turns to the Austrian master’s Symphony No. 6- this CD marks the fifth Bruckner symphony recorded on the ATMA label by the Orchestre Métropolitain under the direction of NézetSéguin.

Their previous Bruckner symphony recordings (Nos. 4, 7, 8, and 9) have been met with unanimous praise. Yannick Nézet-Séguin is one of the most sought-after young conductors in the world. In September 2012, he became the new Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He is also Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, and Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain of Montreal, a position he has held since March 2000.

He has also held the post of Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra since 2008.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin in concert is something to behold and he has fast become a ‘must-see’ artist live on the international concert platform.

Ivor Bolton is known throughout the world for his superlative performances of baroque and early music. In this successful series, he shapes the symphonies of Bruckner and here presents the 6th volume.

Mozarteumorchester Salburg’s release of Symphony No.3 (OC722) was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice.