Knappertsbusch et les symphonies de Bruckner, juin 2000 sur RMCR.

(On excusera l'absence de signatures :
je n'avais pas pensé à une publication 
lors de ma sauvegarde du fil)


Just noticed that Berkshire has the abovementioned box set for $30.
I'm particularly interested in the 3, 4, and 9 in the box, but if anyone
wants to comment on the 5, 7, and 8, I'd certainly listen.  I've never
heard any of Kna's work, and my knowledge of his conducting is basically
limited to my dim awareness that everyone seems to think that his choice of
performing editions for Bruckner sucked.

There's also a different Bruckner 3 by Kna on the same label, but a
different performance than in the box; also seeking comments here.

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Now, the performances: The 3rd is a very interesting performance, not
my first choice of the 1889 edition (that would be Carl Schuricht), but
full of some great touches, like the finale that for once doesn't sound
way too short, due to Kna's slower than normal tempi. It does have the
normal negative of a Kna performance -- sloppy ensemble.

I like the 4th very much. Henry Fogel has quite the opposite reaction.
Personally, I like Kna's approach to the "Löwe" 4th (really Bruckner's
revision, despite what earlier Brucknerites said) much better than I do
Furtwängler's rather wayward approach.

The 5th is, of course, the maligned "Schalk" version, but Kna gives us
a great performance, alas, in pitiful sound -- almost like it was
recorded from an AM radio speaker.

The 7th really grabs me, the only negative being the fact that the
recorder did not capture the first measure of string tremolo at the
opening.

The 8th is an excellent performance. If you've heard Kna's funereal
studio 8th on Westminster, don't prejudge this one. It is very well
paced, and generally well played.

I just can't abide the Löwe 9th, and in this case there's really no
controversy about his edition -- Bruckner was dead when Löwe
sandpapered Bruckner's expressionistic masterpiece down to a rather
ordinary "salon music" symphony. The textual revisions are actually
much less radical than what Franz Schalk did to the 5th, but I hear the
spirit of Bruckner still in evidence in the Schalk 5th, while the 9th
sounds to me completely falsified.

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If you like Kna, this set is a must.  Not a first recommendation for a
Bruckner collector, however.   Some of the performances are quite good
(like the BPO 8th, which IMO will dispel the commonly held notion that
Kna always was a boring and slow conductor).  Generally Kna preferred
the first-published version of the symphony, which means that he
conducted the Loewe 4th, Schalk 5th, 1892 8th, etc.
Last, but not least, this set has an outstanding writeup by Mark Kluge
on Kna's Bruckner that is more than worth what Berkshire is asking for
the set.

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For copyright reasons, this M&A set is not available in Germany.
However a melodram set is available.  These Melodram transfers are
teribble. Did you have the opportunity to compare these two transfer?

=============
I reviewed this set when it was issued for Fanfare Magazine -- here is a
condensed, heavily edited version of that review; I hope it helps.

BRUCKNER Symphonies: No. 3 in d1; No. 4 in E-Flat2; No. 5 in B-Flat3; No. 7 in
E4; No. 8 in c2; No. 9 in d2 • Hans Knappertsbusch, cond; NDR SO, Hamburg1;
Berlin PO2; Munich PO3; Vienna PO4 • MUSIC & ARTS CD-1028, mono (6 CDs priced
as 4: 382:39). Live: 1944-1962.


Thanks to excellent transfer work by Maggi Payne and superlative program notes
by Mark Kluge, this release can be enthusiastically recommended to those who
collect Knappertsbusch or Bruckner recordings. That it is not for the general
collector is a result of several factors: the individuality and inconsistency
of Knappertsbusch, the variable sound quality of the original source material,
and the conductor's use of original published versions of all of these
works....

Even those who do collect Knappertsbusch and Bruckner know that because of the
unevenness of his work one cannot automatically expect to enthuse over each
performance. He ran as hot and cold as any important conductor with whom I am
familiar. For this set, Music & Arts has chosen well. These live performances
capture one of our century's more impulsive, dramatic, and mercurial conductors
interpreting the music of one of his favorite composers over a span of almost
two decades. Mark Kluge's accompanying notes deal thoroughly with
Knappertsbusch's choice of editions – always the first published version of
any Bruckner symphony – and they help us comprehend why there is a logic in
Knappertsbusch's choices. Except for the Fifth, where the severe cutting in the
finale presents barriers to enjoyment that I cannot surmount, I find these
editions satisfying in their own ways.... 

Symphony No. 3 (Hamburg: Jan. 15, 1962): This is perhaps the finest
performance in the set, a reading of grandeur, scope, and rich orchestral
color. Knappertsbusch's concentration never lets up here (something not always
true for this conductor), and there seems to be a taut line running through
from first note to last.... This is the 1889 revision of the score, long
attributed to Schalk, but probably more Bruckner than has been assumed....Tempi
are not particularly slow, despite the conductor's reputation; he doesn't rush,
to be sure, but there is not a hint of dragging. This is Knappertsbusch at his
best – generous phrasing, a bottom-up orchestral sonority, forward motion
with the end always in mind despite a willingness to stop and smell the musical
roses along the way. 

Symphony No. 4 (Berlin: Sept. 8, 1944): I believe this to be the least
successful performance in the set. The conductor's reputation for
heavy-handedness, often undeserved, seems right on the money here, in a reading
that fails to take wing from the onset. It is not a question of editions,
because Furtwängler makes this 1889 published version work very well....From
the beginning this performance is simply too dogged in its rhythmic insistence,
too marcato, for the sustenance of a true Brucknerian line. Throughout,
Knappertsbusch seems to emphasize beats (not just downbeats, but even
individual beats within the measure), undercutting the lyricism that he
sometimes manages to bring to the fore....

Symphony No. 5 (Munich: Mar. 19, 1959): Here is a reading far more powerful
and better organized than Knappertsbusch's famous Decca studio recording, but
it is compromised by sound that is more muffled and constricted than the
broadcasts here from the 1940s. Climaxes are muddled and gritty, and the bass
line, so important to Knappertsbusch's concepts of sound, is weak. Nonetheless,
listeners who are interested in this conductor and/or the history of Bruckner
performance practice cannot afford to miss this reading. This is the symphony
in which the choice of editions is a most serious issue, and I will never get
used to the massive shortening of the finale in this first published version.
But this was the way in which many came to know this score, and it is doubtful
that it has ever received more powerful advocacy than it does here. This
performance is stronger on dramatic contrast than the Decca set, more mercurial
in matters of variety of tempo and dynamics, and more rhythmically incisive....

Symphony No. 7 (Salzburg Festival: Aug. 30, 1949): This, like the Third, is a
winner in all senses. The sound, while compressed at climaxes (it is at first
blush hard to detect Knappertsbusch's use of the extra percussion at the climax
of the Adagio because of the overload distortion), is surprisingly clear and
open at forte and below. For a 1949 broadcast it is very listenable. And what a
rich, warmly phrased and deeply communicative performance it is. Knappertsbusch
and the VPO make heavy, but tasteful, use of portamento, which gives a
heartfelt beauty to the music's more lyrical passages....       

Symphony No. 8 (Berlin: Jan. 7-8, 1951): No, the performance wasn't so slow that it took place
over two days!  There were two performances, and it is not clear if this
recording is compiled from both or is taken from one only. Whatever the case,
it is far more successful than Knappertsbusch's dreadful Westminster set with
the Munich Philharmonic (the 1963 Westminster recording is about 85:20, whereas
this reading is 77:33). In addition to faster tempi, this performance has about
it a tautness, a sense of drama and a rhythmic incisiveness that are all
missing from the studio set. And the sound is quite decent mono broadcast
quality as well. 
It is actually difficult to recognize the two performances as the work of the
same conductor, so different are the approaches. Where he lingers lovingly over
every phrase on the Westminster, failing to bind phrases together and letting
the rhythms sag, here he seems to be concentrating on maintaining momentum, and
on relating what went before to what is about to come. The result is a reading
that may lack the sense of grand mystery and astonishing cumulative power
brought to this score by Furtwängler, but a reading that combines both
mysticism and a sense of theater in equal measure.... 

Symphony No. 9 (Berlin: Jan. 29/30, 1950): This is another truly incandescent
performance here. This might be the most surprising of all readings – veering
sharply from our view of Knappertsbusch as a sober, deeply serious conductor
who approached music of this nature as an almost religious calling. This is, in
fact, a performance for which the word theatrical is perhaps the most
appropriate adjective. The basic tempo of the first movement is quite fast
(though he varies it so much throughout that it is almost silly to speak of a
basic tempo), and the reading emphasizes contrast and drama. The sound quality
is somewhat congested, but perfectly acceptable. The lyrical second subject is
given an almost sensuous, caressing touch, in very sharp contrast to the thrust
and weight of the first subject. As the second subject develops Knappertsbusch
and the Berlin Philharmonic play on its richness of texture, weaving upper and
lower strings around each other with lavish beauty. The musicians find more
gradations of dynamics than one would think possible. Indeed, throughout the
first and last movements it is this careful, but never fussy, dynamic shading
that is one of the performance's great achievements. Some might find the
Scherzo too slow or weighty, but by maintaining a firm rhythmic pulse
Knappertsbusch seems to me to avoid the trap of bogging down. The final Adagio,
instead of its usual grim reading, is again treated like a mini-drama, with
great fluctuations of tempo and variety of orchestral textures. The approach
works wonderfully.
As noted at the outset, this set is not intended for, nor appropriate for, the
general collector who wants to own one performance of each Bruckner symphony.
It is meant to illuminate the work of one of this century's important
conductors in an area of the repertoire that was important to him, and
important to him at a time that many other conductors were ignoring the music
of Bruckner....
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