BRUCKNER From the Archives, Vol. 4 = Symphony No. 5; String Quintet in F Major; Intermezzo for String Quintet – SOMM Ariadne 5031-2 (2 CDs = 75:23; 49:07; complete content and credits below) (9/20/24) [Distr. by Naxos] ****:
Conceived and designed by SOMM Executive Producer and acclaimed Audio Engineer Lani Spahr with support from the Bruckner Society of America, Bruckner from the Archives celebrates the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth in 1824 with rare archival recordings of the 11 symphonies and selected other important works. These have been sourced by Lani Spahr from the more than 12,000 Bruckner performances in the Archive of John F. Berky, Executive Secretary of the Bruckner Society of America, who also acts as Consultant for this important series.
The major work of this 2-CD collection, the Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major (1878), led by Christoph von Dohnányi (b. 1929), dates from a Berlin aircheck, 8 December1963. Complementing the monumental symphonic work, the intimate String Quintet in F Major (1879), with its alternate to the Scherzo movement, we have the Intermezzo in D Minor (1879), as performed by the Vienna Konzerthaus Quartet and violist Ferdinand Stangler from 1956. The Symphony proffers a work of intricately monumental, polyphonic evolution, its sonority almost entirely obligated to the organ diapason and registration, the heart of Bruckner’s pedagogy. Ironically, because of long delays in securing a first performance, Bruckner never heard the work, given its Graz premiere 8 April 1894. The version realized came from Franz Schalk, who heavily edited the 1878 original; that initial version did not see the light of day until 1935. It is in fact this now-standard edition that Dohnányi performs.
Dohnányi’s reading exemplifies thee “new objectivity” of the era, Bruckner’s sound resonant with the melodic lines driven forward by an irresistible, linear momentum that aims, as Eugen Jochum had pointed out, “at a large-scale foundation” that wishes to culminate at “the Finale and its ending. . .keeping something in reserve for the [chorale] conclusion.” The slow introduction that announces the first movement returns to open the Finale. In the course of the first movement, Adagio – Allegro, the Berlin Radio-Symphony executes any number of exorbitant effects, from volcanic, spasmodic fortissimos to diaphanous string tremolos. Constructed of three main thematic periods, the music evolves in a broad sonata form, the moods alternately gravely earnest and bucolic, moving to a huge restatement in the brass redolent of Wagner, rife with shifting tonalities that flirt with D major without ever having secured the tonal center.
The second movement, Adagio, divides itself into two sections, a lyrically sweet motif and then a chorale. My own standard for this movement was impressed by Hans Knappertsbusch from Vienna. Dohnányi, too, bestows a rich sonority for the broad statement of the luxuriant chorale theme, set against an undulating, pizzicato and arco combination of strings and lush brass. The interior lines, opulent in string and woodwind counterpoint, play off each other antiphonally, a la an organ improvisation. The music gradually swells to an epic peroration, both intensely lyric and nervously agitated, a seeming, sustained preparation for some mystical revelation. The last measures, however, delay that mystery, ending quietly.
The Scherzo: Molto vivace – Trio offers something unique in Bruckner, a sonata form constructed from three themes, the first of which proves quite hectic. The next themes appear more casual, though eerie and processional, with only periodic moments of outburst. The sounded accents become intensely urgent, accelerating in tiny, staccato daggers. The Trio extends the Austrian laendler quality of the music, a light peasant dance set in high altitudes. With the return of the hurtling, opening motif, the sense of anticipation increases, with pungent pizzicato attacks and blaring trumpet work. The laendler motif canters affectionately to provide respite from the interjections and momentum of the aggressive impulses. With the last statements, Dohnányi has his Berlin players in martial throttle, landing on an expectant cadence that barely holds off the rush to the Finale’s judgment.
The last movement, Adagio – Allegro moderato, embodies a tour de force of fugal and chorale writing, opening in the manner of the first movement, but it soon diverges, leaping down a sixth and up a perfect fifth to a massive, tripled-sounded, militant brass statement answered by the string section. Bruckner will impress us mightily, combining at once the dual impulses in a double fugue, rife with hints of the Scherzo and including a “Dresden Amen” from Felix Mendelssohn. Dohnányi underlines the more lyrical episodes to contrast better the urgently manic drive of the upward gestures, many redolent in Wagner harmony. With so many small motifs repeatedly turning over upon themselves, it becomes evident why Brahms referred to such Bruckner devices as “boa constrictors.” The brass enunciation for the chorale sounds a moment of reflective spirituality genuinely felt. An extended pause heralds new, introspectively bucolic reflections, immediately caught up in Bach-inspired counterpoint. The “discipline of musical architecture” that suffuses Bruckner’s concept could become top-heavy, except the thickly diverse scoring and timbres keep our senses alert. The reappearances of earlier motifs has intermittently suggested that Beethoven’s Ninth has played some part in Bruckner’s design. With the long-sought recapitulation, the first movement theme emerges once again in the ardent trumpets, a long-winded concession to the “economy” of cyclic structure. The chorale theme reveals its exalted splendor, one true moment of Bruckner’s colossal sound image. The (gezogen) coda seems its own triumphal march/chorale, as it were, a crown of elaborated contrapuntal genius. The resultant applause has held back long enough.
Bruckner’s 1879 String Quintet in F Major came from a request by Joseph Hellmesberger of the Vienna Conservatory, who, as leader of his own string quartet, had premiered works by Brahms and Dvorak. Curiously, it was the Winkler Quartet who gave the initial performance of Bruckner’s most eloquent contribution to chamber music, on 17 November 1881, with Julius Desing in the second viola part, a combination favored by both Mozart and Brahms. When offered the chance to premiere the Quintet, Hellmesberger declared the scherzo “unplayable” and asked Bruckner for the alternate, gentle Intermezzo here included as an epilogue. After the Winkler ensemble performed the Quintet with its initial Scherzo, Hellmesbeger relented in his negative criticism, and he and his group played original concept on 5 January 1885.
Critics at the 1885 performance, Max Kalbeck and Edward Hanslick, condemned the work as “a dangerous innovation” and “psychological puzzle. . .a shapeless, burning pillar of smoke.” This 1956 reading by the Vienna Konzerthaus Quartet – Anton Kamper and Karl Maria Titze, violins; Erich Weiss, viola; Franz Kvarda, cello; and Ferdinand Stangler, second viola – appeared originally on Vanguard Records (VRS-480). The first movement enjoys a labyrinthine harmonic evolution, alternating F, F#, and D-flat, a rather Wagnerian sensibility to motivic scoring, which often seems a stripped-down, symphonic tone-poem. The agogically knotty Scherzo and Trio bear references to Austrian folk music, particularly the rustic ländler, which Schubert favored.
Here, we have Bruckner at his most genial, almost domestic, sound. The gem of the music lies in the expansive, G-flat major Adagio, whose sonorous, opening chords might be mistaken for those by Dvorak. The secondary theme, the first theme inverted, casts a distinctly hymnal vocal line, especially when the first viola’s expression receives an answer from the cello. The Vienna players seem rapt in their old-world, rhythmically free concentration of this highly personal, introspective moment in Bruckner, rare in his opera. The last measures seem to invoke Schoenberg’s Verklaerte Nacht. The last movement, Lebhaft bewegt, combines three themes, of which the last emerges in full, fugal style. Again, we sense Bruckner’s symphonic gambit, periodic phrasing and contrapuntal motion, busily at work. In the midst of the warm, harmonic twists and turns, F major conceals itself, only to emerge in a large, sweeping presence at the coda.
The less demanding Intermezzo seems inspired by Robert Schumann’s models. It plays like one of that composer’s Märchen, his story-telling marches. In four-square rhythm, the piece moves solemnly, warmly, with some moments of captivating syncopation close to the Dvorak style, with which it closes.
—Gary Lemco
BRUCKNER From the Archives, Vol. 4 =
Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major, WAB 105;
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra/ Christoph von Dohnányi/
String Quintet in F Major, WAB 112;
Intermezzo for String Quintet, WAB 113
Vienna Konzerthaus Quartet/ Ferdinand Stangler, viola 2
From SOMM/Ariadne Volume 4 from the “Bruckner: From The Archives” series, with Symphony #5. Classical Music Review by Gary Lemco.
