Posted by Barry Guerrero on November 22, 2002 at 00:21:44:
In Reply to: Bruckner Recordings posted by Ted on November 21, 2002 at 17:15:51:
You'll get many different opinions, and most of them will be right. For the 7th, I recommend Barenboim/CSO on a DG "twofer" (two for the price of one), that's coupled to his fast and exciting CSO Bruckner 4th. You'll hear some pretty incredible brass playing on both symphonies, but the CSO strings do a fine job as well. Barenboim always does well with the 7th. Either the Karajan/BPO on EMI, or the Karajan/VPO on DG, would both be good choices as well. Eugen Jochum always did the 7th quite well, but you can't get his Dresden one separately any more.
For the 8th, I recommend either Boulez/VPO on DG, or a brand, spanking new recording that just came out on EMI with Franz Welser-Most (the new Cleveland guy) conducting the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra (these kids are not so young, and they're from everywhere). It's extremely good even by Chicago and Vienna standards, and was recorded *live* in Vienna's Musikverien. If you're more of a historical buff, see if you can't find the 1948 Furtwaengler/VPO 8th on Testament. All of these are on one disc, so they won't cost you a lot of money. In addition, there's a fascinating Naxos recording of the first edition of the 8th symphony, which is quite different from the better known revised version (and I'm not talking about the same, old Nowak vs. Hass issue either). It's conducted by Georg Tintner, who jumped out of a Montreal window after completing his Bruckner cycle for Naxos. Sheesh, it wasn't that bad! A very fine budget recording of the 8th (Nowak edition of the revised verwsion) is the Maazel/BPO one that's out on EMI's Seraphim budget label.
For the 9th, I suggest a Reference Recording that has Stanislaw Skrowaczewski (something like that) conducting the Minnesota Orchestra. It's a bit on the fast side, but the Reference Recordings sound quality is nothing short of amazing, and the playing is quite good. I've always liked the Giulini/CSO one that was out on EMI, but it's been out-of-print for a long while now. For the VPO, I suggest the Zubin Mehta one that recently got reissued on Decca's mid-price "Legends" series. However, it hasn't been released in the U.S. yet, so you'll have to mail order it from Europe. The VPO horns go absolutely nuts on this recording, and the Decca recording does better justice to the VPO strings than any of the DG ones do. DG reissued their Barenboim/CSO 9th on one of their budget priced sub-series, but it'll be very difficult to find. If you mail order from Europe, you might want to look up both the Barenboim/CSO, and the Mehta/VPO 9th's at the same time. Get 'em both! Good luck.
If you're thinking of complete box sets, both the Eugen Jochum/Staatskapelle Dresden one on EMI, and the Georg Tintner one on Naxos, are very reasonably priced as well as being musically satisfying.
Barry Guerrero