Bruckner Orchester Linz
Markus Poschner, conductor

This Complete Bruckner Symphonies Edition includes all versions of the symphonies either published or to be published under the auspices of the Austrian National Library and the International Bruckner Society in the Neue Anton Bruckner Gesamtausgabe (‘The New Anton Bruckner Complete Edition’). Bruckner himself reckoned that his career as a professional composer began when he was thirty-nine. With only an exercise for a symphony under his belt – the unnumbered F minor – he was now ready to write his first true symphony. The world, however, was not ready to receive it. First performed, badly, in 1868 in Linz, the work flopped and was put aside until nine years and five symphonies later, when it was gently reworked. A subsequent performance in 1884 was Bruckner’s “most successful Viennese performance to date”, which perplexingly led to a thorough revision that would become the 1891 ‘Vienna’ version. This recording uses the original 1868 ‘Linz’ version.

‘Poschner shows skilful freshness…’ – Pizzicato ★★★★

★★★★

Bruckner Orchester Linz
Markus Poschner, conductor

Anton Bruckner finally received the award of an honorary doctorate from the University of Vienna on 11 December 1891. For Bruckner, receiving the doctorate fulfilled a long-time wish, since he had spent most of his life pursuing academic credentials and applied for honorary doctorates at Cambridge University in 1882 and at the Universities of Pennsylvania and Cincinnati in 1885. Two days later, Hans Richter conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in the first performance of the second or so-called 'Vienna' version of Bruckner's First Symphony, which he had dedicated to the university in gratitude for the degree. The changes Bruckner made in this revised version are not as extensive as those he made to the Third, Fourth and Eighth Symphonies during the late 1880s and early 1890s. His revisions to the First Symphony did not affect the overall form of any of the movements. He changed many details of orchestration, articulation and phrase length, some of which are difficult to notice on first hearing. Nevertheless, the 1891 autograph score is the composer’s final word on how he wanted his First Symphony to be performed and understood.

ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
Markus Poschner, conductor

Capriccio’s Complete Bruckner Symphonies Edition includes all versions of the symphonies either published or to be published under the auspices of the Austrian National Library and the International Bruckner Society in the Neue Anton Bruckner Gesamtausgabe (The New Anton Bruckner Complete Edition). Bruckner’s Second Symphony is rarely heard in its 1877 version, and it has remained virtually unperformed in the 1872 original version. This is not because of any deficiency in Bruckner’s earlier ideas compared with the later alterations. It’s mainly down to habit and convenience, since acquiring new parts and re⁠-⁠learning a score with many detailed differences requires significant extra effort and resources. That’s a pity, because it is well worth discovering the original rawness of Bruckner’s early masterpiece, something rarely heard since its creation, until now.

Bruckner Orchester Linz
Markus Poschner, conductor

When Otto Desshoff read through the score of Bruckner’s Second Symphony to determine its suitability for performance by the Vienna Philharmonic, he declared “What nonsense this is”, dooming the work to a life of revisions. Composed in 1871, the work was then known as The Third, since the original second, Zeroëth, hadn’t yet been removed from the catalogue of Bruckner’s numbered symphonies. Although the premiere of The Second Symphony was quite well received, Bruckner and his team of assistants set about reworking it in 1877, trimming it of any superfluous material, most significantly in the Finale, where a full 193 bars were pruned. This recording of the 1877 version observes all those cuts, without affecting Bruckner’s original, expansive structure.

ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
Markus Poschner, conductor

Bruckner revised his Third Symphony more than any other: there are three manuscript versions, two published versions from within his lifetime, a separate manuscript of the Adagio, and revision fragments from 1874, 1875 and 1876 that have also survived. In its first version (used for this recording), it is Bruckner’s longest and most overtly Wagnerian symphony. When Bruckner expert Robert Simpson got to study Nowak’s edition of this version in 1977, he threw his previously held opinions overboard and declared it an ‘achievement … progressively maimed in successive versions.’

‘…the ORF Radio Symphony is clearly an outstanding ensemble… This release is obligatory for those who already have the previous discs in this series and the growing number of Bruckner enthusiasts.’ – MusicWeb International

★★★★

ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
Bruckner Orchester Linz
Markus Poschner, conductor

Anton Bruckner began the revision of his Third Symphony after completing the Fifth on 16 May 1876, and continued working on it sporadically until 28 April 1877. Then, after the Vienna Philharmonic rejected the symphony for a third time, Bruckner’s friend Hofkapellmeister Johann Herbeck took matters into his own hands. He arranged to conduct the work himself as part of a concert series promoted by the Society for the Friends of Music (Gesellschaftskonzerte) on 16 December 1877. When Herbeck passed away unexpectedly, Bruckner was forced to conduct the symphony himself. The performance proved to be one of the worst debacles of his career. The players were rude and unreceptive, and the audience left the concert hall in droves. Despite the public fiasco, Theodor Rättig, one of the few people who remained to the end of the performance, offered to publish the work, which represented the first publication of a Bruckner symphony. Two other people who were also there at the end – Gustav Mahler and Rudolf Krzyzanowski – prepared a piano four-hand reduction for Rättig’s publication, which appeared at the end of 1879.

Bruckner Orchester Linz
Markus Poschner, conductor

Bruckner’s Third Symphony was always something of a symphonic problem child, from its disastrous first performance (notwithstanding the enthusiastic reception it received from a young Gustav Mahler) until well into the 20th century. In its original form, it’s the longest, most Wagnerian of his symphonies that is often considered, rightly or wrongly, the first truly Brucknerian symphony. While some cherish the uncompromising originality of the first version, Bruckner himself preferred the much tighter 1889 third version, finding it “incomparably better”. This recording of that final version now enables listeners to decide for themselves.

ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
Markus Poschner, conductor

Markus Poschner and his team now tackle the original 1876 version of Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony, arguably his most popular symphony. ‘1876? Surely you mean 1874!’ the Bruckner specialist might comment. Well, recent research has revealed that Bruckner was still adjusting details of the work by that date, but not so substantially that the changes amounted to a separate version; nor, for that matter, the 1878 second ‘standard’ version. Paul Hawkshaw’s liner notes detail all the differences for those who are interested in the subject – but, of course, one can also simply enjoy the immediate freshness of Bruckner’s expansive first ideas.

‘Poschner gives this version a very fresh and spirited mood. He cares about details and presents us with a very imaginative Bruckner and a very playful Fourth.’ – Pizzicato

★★★★★

infodad.com

★★★★

Bruckner Orchester Linz (1–4)
ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (5)
Markus Poschner, conductor

‘I am completely convinced that my Fourth Romantic Symphony is in pressing need of a thorough revision.’ (Anton Bruckner, 1877) Since its successful first performance by the Vienna Philharmonic under Hans Richter on 20 February 1881, the Fourth Symphony has been one of Anton Bruckner’s most beloved works. The success of the Fourth did not come easily to the composer as he revised the entire symphony twice and its finale three times. This recording features the second and most often performed version in a new edition by Benjamin Korstvedt, published as part of the New Anton Bruckner Collected Works Edition. It also includes Korstvedt’s edition of the ‘Volksfest’ (Country Fair) Finale that Bruckner composed in 1878 and replaced in 1880.

‘I cannot imagine anyone being disappointed by this superb recording, especially as in addition to a superlative account of the third version of the Fourth Symphony, it includes the bonus of the Volksfest.’ – MusicWeb International

★★★★

ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
Markus Poschner, conductor

Bruckner’s frantic revisions of his symphonies Nos. 3, 4 and 8 followed his disappointment with Hermann Levi’s rejection of the original version of the Eighth Symphony. Helping in this large-scale effort to revise the works were some of Bruckner’s former students – Franz and Joseph Schalk, Ferdinand Löwe, Max von Oberleithner and Cyrill Hynai. The result was that the reputation of these versions – especially the final version of the Fourth – became tarnished as something not quite Echt-Bruckner. It wasn’t until the discovery of photographs of the 1888 version’s manuscript score, and the subsequent publication of Benjamin Korstvedt’s edition of the work, that it became clear that this late edition really did reflect Bruckner’s intentions. To ears familiar with the even better-known 1881 version, the result might sound mystifying, even troubling, but it also surprises with many particularly exquisite passages!

★★★★★

Bruckner Orchester Linz
Markus Poschner, conductor

Was it because conductors were sufficiently satisfied with Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony as it stood, or was it down to editorial foot-dragging that the work’s original 1887 version wasn’t published and performed until 1972? It was certainly Hermann Levi’s dissatisfaction or at least bewilderment with the work, so shortly after his very successful Munich performance of the Seventh, that made Bruckner revise the symphony in the first place. It is this elaborate, raw earlier version that Markus Poschner performs here, in the latest edition by Paul Hawkshaw for the New Anton Bruckner Complete Edition. More ornate, brassier and with more economically employed woodwinds, this version doesn’t smooth the edges or round out the corners, providing an interesting insight into an emboldened Bruckner at his unadulterated self.

Bruckner Orchester Linz
Markus Poschner, conductor

Anton Bruckner burst out of the confines of the cathedral using that most secular of musical forms, the symphony. The creator of some of the 19th century’s greatest orchestral music, Bruckner cut a singular figure among his contemporaries. This recording of Symphony No. 8 (1890 version) is performed by Bruckner Orchester Linz conducted by Markus Poschner.

‘The liberation of the listening habits from pathos to a more lively expression.’ – Pizzicato

Bruckner Orchester Linz
Markus Poschner, conductor

This final album of Capriccio’s Bruckner Symphonies in The Complete Versions Edition includes both his very first and final symphonies.

In March 1861, Bruckner completed his counterpoint studies with the renowned teacher Simon Sechter, who had also taught Schubert. His graduation signaled the end of an extended break in his compositional output, when his F minor Symphony was conceived in the classical and early romantic tradition of Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Schumann.

Bruckner’s Ninth, considered by some to be his best symphony, is certainly his most daring and, thanks to the missing finale, his most mysterious. It is where Bruckner meets Mahler and, while working on it, when he met his end. He intended to complete the finale, of course, but too much remains missing. What he left us is a heavenly Adagio, which quietly fades away with references in the brass to his two preceding symphonies and ending, but not quite completing, his life’s work.