Bruckner: The Symphonies Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		0.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.5

Bruckner: The Symphonies Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 13, 2019

Hans von Bülow once famously described Anton Bruckner as “half genius, half simpleton”, and if those two descriptions seem like a weird combo platter, if not in fact diametrically opposed to each other, one need only listen to some of Bruckner’s massive symphonies for prime examples of how these two aspects could coexist in one soul. Bruckner is noted for the gargantuan proclivities of his orchestral writing, a “size matters” school that also affected his contemporary Richard Wagner, but often his hyperbolic constructions were fashioned out of rather basic melodic ideas, albeit ideas which were then transmogrified almost beyond recognition by Bruckner’s developmental abilities and extravagant orchestrations. That may be one reason why Bruckner’s symphonies haven’t really produced any “hit tunes” (so to speak) in the same way that some of Beethoven’s and Brahms’ efforts in the idiom have. Bruckner is a thorny composer to approach no matter how you want to “define” him, but this great cycle of recordings of his symphonies by the inimitable Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic is a testament to what a, yes, genius Bruckner was.

Fans of Bruckner will know that "which symphony" can mean more than one thing with regard to this particular composer, since there are so many versions of different works that have become part of the Bruckner canon. For the record (and/or Blu-ray audio disc), this set features the following versions of the symphonies:

Symphony No. 1, 1856/66 "Linz" Version - Edition Robert Haas; Original version, Linz 1866, ed. Haas with minor emendations incorporated in the 1953 Nowak edition

Symphony No. 2, 1871/72, rev. 1875/76 - Editions Robert Haas / Leopold Nowak; Karajan conflates the original 1872 version ed. Haas with the 1876 Bruckner and Herbeck revision, ed. Nowak

Symphony No. 3, 1873-77, rev. 1888/89 - Edition Leopold Nowak; 1889 Bruckner and Franz Schalk revision of the versions of 1873, 1867-7, ed. Nowak, omitting additional changes made by Schalk for printing of the 1889 revision

Symphony No. 4, 1874, 1878-80 - Edition Robert Haas; first definitive version, 1880, ed. Haas

Symphony No. 5, 1875/76 - Edition Robert Haas; original Bruckner text, ed. Haas

Symphony No. 6, 1879-81 - Edition Robert Haas; 1881, ed. Haas, reissued with corrections, ed. Nowak

Symphony No. 7, 1881-83 - Edition Robert Haas; original 1883, ed. Haas

Symphony No. 8, 1884-87, rev. 1887-90 - Edition Robert Haas; revised 1890 version, ed. Haas with material restored from 1887 original version

Symphony No. 9, 1887-96 - Edition Alfred Orel, rev. Leopold Nowak; Unfinished, 1896, ed. Orel, Nowak

Bruckner: The Symphonies Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

There is no video component per se on this release, other than a static menu, and since there's only one audio option available, there's even less of a need for a monitor than there sometimes is with these audio Blu-ray releases.

Bruckner: The Symphonies Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Bruckner: The Symphonies features an LPCM 2.0 track (24 bit/192 kHz), though the back cover of the release discloses that Symphonies 1, 2 and 3 were upsampled from 16 bit/44.1 kHz, which I assume is an audio remnant of Deutsche Grammophon switching to pure digital recordings (this cycle was recorded between 1975 to 1981, and so the last recordings were done at the dawn of the "digital age"). These recordings offer the generally lustrous sound that Deutsche Grammophon regularly provides to lovers of classical music, and the bombastic proclivities of some of Bruckner's immense movements are rendered here cleanly and clearly, with rather expressive dynamic range and some surprising warmth in the brass and winds especially. I found the highs to be a little bright, especially on those aforementioned first three symphonies, and to my ears at least tending to be most noticeable in moments featuring strings in their upper registers.

Bruckner: The Symphonies Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements on the Blu-ray disc. The package comes with 9 CDs (with some Symphonies like the 5th split weirdly over more than one disc), as well as a nicely informative insert booklet that has data on all the symphonies.

Bruckner: The Symphonies Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I had a composer friend tell me once that Bruckner wrote his symphonies with "a T square and slide rule", something that perhaps hints at Bruckner's "architectural" tendencies, but probably misses some of the splendor of Bruckner's imagination. I've frankly never been a huge fan of Bruckner's writing, finding some of his ideas on the pedestrian side, and his tendency to "wander" to and fro occasionally a little frustrating, but there's no denying the orchestral magnificence Bruckner brought to the compositional table. Von Karajan was one of the better interpreters of Bruckner in my opinion, able to forge a coherent account of sometimes wide ranging musical content. This cycle has some incredibly dramatic moments and the vaunted Deutsche Grammophon engineering brings it all to energetic life. While Bruckner's symphonies are daunting (to say the least), those with the fortitude to make it through this cycle will be rewarded by some really winning performances. Highly recommended.