ANTON BRUCKNER

 

Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4

 

Symphony No. 3 version 1889 / edition Nowak 1959

Symphony No. 4 'Romantic' version 1878-80 / edition Nowak 1953

 

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra / Mariss Jansons (chief conductor)

 

Recorded Live at Concertgebouw Amsterdam on:

7, 8 February 2007 and 28 August 2008 (No. 3)

17, 18, 19 and 21 September 2008 (No. 4)

 

Ever since the tenure of its chief conductor Eduard van Beinum (1945-59), the Concertgebouw Orchestra has cherished one of the greatest Bruckner symphonic traditions in the world. Mariss Jansons continues this performance tradition and under his baton, Bruckner has a warm, beating heart: his rhythms are not simply played, they are, above all, experienced. With this release of Bruckner's Third and Fourth Symphonies, Jansons and his Amsterdam-based orchestra add a new chapter to the RCO's impressive performance and recording history of Bruckner's works.

 

Concert Review:

"That same sense of having found exactly the right pulse rate for the music was there from the start of the Bruckner too…chording was compact, timbres lean yet ripe, and rhythms rigorous and highly charged, particularly in the exuberance of the Concertgebouw's burnished brass. The orchestra's lustrous strings sang as one, bringing light and air to an adagio that can too often become suffocating. Jansons, typically, understood and felt not only every nerve within the score, but also exploited and made very much his own every second of his orchestra's own Bruckner heritage." The Times

 

RCO Live 2SACDs RCO09002