Symphony 8 1949

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Even those relatively immune to Wilhelm Furtwängler's conducting of the classics admit that his Bruckner stands with the finest ever recorded. That describes this Eighth, recorded live in March, 1949 (but without an audience present) for broadcast recording. Like most of Furtwangler's nonstudio recordings, it bristles with fervor. The slow movement, especially, has a humanity barely approached by most rivals. Of his several Bruckner Eighths on record this one is the most successful in its blend of sustained long lines and improvisatory detail. Furtwangler's command of structure and the intensity of his reading make this vital for all Bruckner fans. The sound is satisfying, despite some graininess and occassional congestion. --Dan Davis

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful early 1950s recordings by an unknown conductor to many Americans.......2006-04-29

Carl Schuricht (1880-1967) may be an unknown conductor to many Americans, but had an active career in Germany, Holland and France from the 1930s until his death in 1967. Schuricht was known to me primarily from his EMI stereo recording of Bruckner Symphonies 8 and 9 with the Vienna Philharmonic. The recordings in this Decca set are MONO, but in very clear, well defined sound. Decca's engineers have done excellent work for this reissue.

Some listeners will know which works are by the Paris Conservatory Orchestra, as their trumpets, horns, and woodwinds have a certain vibrato laden timbre which their American and British counterparts, for example, do not. You either like the Paris Conservatory or you don't, and I DO. Beethoven's Symphony 5; Tchaikovsky's Capriccio Italien, Orchestra Suite No. 3 Variations; Schumann's Symphonies 2 and 3 + Overture, Scherzo and Finale are all by the Paris Conservatory Orchestra in this collection. The other works: Beethoven Symphonies 1 and 2, Mendelssohn RUY BLAS, HEBRIDES, FAIR MELUSINA and CALM SEA AND PROSPEROUS VOYAGE Overtures; Brahms Symphony 2 and Schubert Symphony 8 "Unfinished" are all with the Vienna Philharmonic from the early 1950s.

There is much here to love, even if you have other recordings of these works. Schuricht had a special solidity but was never stodgy or dry. I compare him favorably with Karl Bohm (1894-1981). Recommended, and I have other recordings of all these works, but am glad to have Schuricht, too.

Schuricht's Classic Studio Recordings 1949-56.......2005-04-08

To my mind, Schuricht's sane and very musical conducting always occupied an appealing "middle ground" between the more subjectively romantic way of Furtwangler/Abendroth/Mengelberg and the tougher rhythmic drive of Toscanini and Kleiber. Here is a brief assessment of each CD in this 5-disc collection:

CD 1. Schuricht draws wonderfully disciplined playing from the VPO in this superb Beethoven 1st, which is one of my favorite versions along with the more Haydnesque, gemutlich Weingartner/VPO (best heard on an Opus Kura CD from Japan, coupled with Weingartner's magnificent Beethoven 7th). Schuricht's Beethoven 5th with the Paris Conservatory Orchestra has appeared elsewhere on Italian bootleg labels. The transfer here is vastly superior. This is, to my ears, one of the greatest-ever accounts: it's very straight (lean and mean) and better-played than Schuricht's later recording in his complete Beethoven symphony set (French EMI). Even though Furtwangler remains my exemplar here (his 1943 wartime concert performance on DG and the mellower 1952 account on Tahra), Schuricht's more classical manner is very persuasive. This surely ranks among the finest "straight" 5ths of Weingartner (Naxos), Erich Kleiber (Decca) and Carlos Kleiber (DG). Schuricht's Mendelssohn is well-played, if a bit sober and penny-plain. In the Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) Overture, I still prefer Beecham, Furtwangler, Maag and Fritz Lehmann. In the Ruy Blas, Beecham is simply inimitable. For the Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, there was once an excellent version on Columbia LP (England) by Paul Kletzki and the Israel Philharmonic (coupled with a great Scotch Symphony) that deserves to be on CD. My favorite account remains the Lehmann/Berlin Phil., which DG ought to re-issue in a coupling with the Hebrides and the Roloff/Lehmann readings of Mendelssohn's piano concertos.

CD 2. This disc holds two treasurable 2nds of the "desert island" variety. The Beethoven Symphony has a wonderfully trenchant first mvt., a Larghetto with delectable interplay between the VPO's beautifully sweet strings and its plangent winds, a witty Scherzo, and an affectionately slow last mvt. At a length of 7:07, the latter is hardly Allegro Molto (for that you have to hear the brilliant Erich Kleiber on Teldec), but to my ears this is one of the truly classic performances, along with the Kleiber and the outstanding Weingartner (best transfer: Naxos). The Brahms 2nd Piano Concerto with Backhaus is a great collaboration - this pianist was always at his best in Brahms - and the transfer is HUGELY superior to what was (barely) heard in the Philips "Great Pianists" series. It's my favorite account, though I wouldn't be without the exceptional readings by Clifford Curzon/Hans Knappertsbusch (Living Stage) and Sviatoslav Richter/George Georgescu (Dorian, coupled with Richter's only recording of the Handel Variations).

CD 3. Schuricht's gorgeously lyrical, very pastoral account of Brahms' 2nd Symphony is more uptempo than his live Stuttgart account (Archiphon). If I could have only 3 recordings, they would be this Schuricht (excellent transfer!), the Fritz Busch (EMI) and the Furtwangler (EMI). Incidentally, I can't help noticing (in the last mvt., the passage starting at 4:43 here) an odd similarity to the opening of Mahler's 1st (since the opening of Mahler's 3rd is clearly patterned on the main theme of the Brahms 1st's last mvt., I think this may be more than just a coincidence). Christian Ferras' interpretation of the Brahms Violin Concerto reminds me somewhat of Fritz Kreisler's (Ferras also uses the Kreisler cadenza). It's a lovely, small-scale account, and joins a lengthy list of "greats" (e.g., Kreisler/Blech, Busch/ Steinberg, Szigeti/Harty, Martzy/Kletzki, De Vito/Schwarz, etc.)

CD 4. This disc is all Schumann: The Overture, Scherzo & Finale (rather like a symphony without a slow movement), plus the 2nd and 3rd Symphonies. All are with the Paris Conservatory Orchestra, whose billowing brass may be an acquired taste. These are all masterly readings. The CD notes fail to mention that, in the "Rhenish," Schuricht uses Mahler's re-orchestration. My other favorite 2nds (the opening measures so like Haydn's #104!) are the more richly romantic readings by Stokowski (Cala) and Pfitzner (Koch Legacy), and the chastely classical Enescu (Dutton). My favorite stereo 3rd is probably the Leibowitz (Chesky). Hopefully a long-extinct 10" DG LP of the 3rd with Leitner and the Berlin Phil. will achieve a CD transfer: it had the loveliest slow mvt. I have ever heard.

CD 5. This disc is of lesser distinction. Mendelssohn's Fair Melusine Overture receives a sturdy reading that isn't quite on the level of Busch or Beecham. The Schubert 8th strikes me as a mis-fire - it's also available on Schuricht's "Great Conductors" volume on IMG (see my review). And the Tchaikovsky Capriccio Italien is simply no match for the ebullient Kondrashin (RCA).

This Decca set is essential listening, especially for its pace-setting accounts of Beethoven and Brahms. If you would like to hear a broader representation of Schuricht's artistry, you may want to explore his 10-disc set on Scribendum (available at Amazon.uk), which includes stylish accounts of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, Mozart's 38/40/41, a fine Bruckner 7th, and a very warm-hearted Brahms 4th.

Strongly recommended.

Carl Schuricht: An Original Master.......2005-01-13

Conductor Carl Schuricht has been unfairly neglected over the years, but a recent string of reissues should go to great lengths to remedy that problem. Compiling many of his greatest recordings for the Decca label from 1949-1956, this box set will be a most welcome addition to the shelves of classical music connoisseurs. Unfortunately, this title is not without its problems. While the set claims on its back cover that all of this material, save a 1952 account of the Brahms 2nd Piano Concerto with Backhaus (amazing BTW) and a 1956 Schubert 8th Symphony, are receiving their first international CD release, a lot of this material has been readily available for years. In addition to the aforementioned "Unfinished," the 1954 performance of Mendelssohn's "Hebrides" Overture with the Vienna Philharmonic was recently included in Schuricht's "Great Conductors of the 20th Century" title. Also the 1954 recording of the Brahms Violin Concerto with Christian Ferras is the very same version featured on Testament SBT 1293, and it is an alarming trend, if you ask me, that these "licensed" recordings are starting to appear simultaneously on two labels (see my recent review of EMI's "Great Recordings of the Century" release of David Oistrakh performing Prokofiev's Violin Concertos). Finally, why UNI chose to issue this and the recent Erich Kleiber set in clunky plastic jewel cases, instead of the normal slim paperboard box with paper sleeves for the discs, is beyond me. Overall though, "Original Masters: Carl Schuricht" is another first rate historical reissue from Universal. Schuricht's earlier performances of Beethoven's 1st, 2nd & 5th Symphonies featured here offer a nice contrast to his accounts of a few years later on EMI, and his Schumann -- the 2nd & 3rd Symphonies and "Overture, Scherzo and Finale" comprising CD4 -- is surprisingly good. In fact, I can hardly wait for the next batch of Decca OMs next month!

Average customer rating:

Possibly the best Eight ever
Cathedral Architecture in Sound
Definitive Quality Sound Recording Of B's 8 by Furtwaengler!

Symphony 8 1949

Manufacturer: Testament UK
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Great Recordings Of The Century - Beethoven: Symphony no 9 / Furtwangler, Schwarzkopf
Schumann: Sinfonie Nr. 4

ASIN: B0000067UN
Release Date: 1998-04-14

Tracks:

Symphony No. 8 In C Minor: 1: Allegro Moderato
Symphony No. 8 In C Minor: 2: Scherzo (Allegro Moderato) & Trio (Langsam)
Symphony No. 8 In C Minor: 3: Adagio (Feierlich langsam doch nicht schleppend)
Symphony No. 8 In C Minor: 4: Finale (Feierlich nicht schnell)

Amazon.com

Even those relatively immune to Wilhelm Furtwängler's conducting of the classics admit that his Bruckner stands with the finest ever recorded. That describes this Eighth, recorded live in March, 1949 (but without an audience present) for broadcast recording. Like most of Furtwangler's nonstudio recordings, it bristles with fervor. The slow movement, especially, has a humanity barely approached by most rivals. Of his several Bruckner Eighths on record this one is the most successful in its blend of sustained long lines and improvisatory detail. Furtwangler's command of structure and the intensity of his reading make this vital for all Bruckner fans. The sound is satisfying, despite some graininess and occassional congestion. --Dan Davis

Customer Reviews:

Possibly the best Eight ever.......2005-01-14

In my opinion, this recording of Furtwangler magnificent account of Bruckner's Eight Symphony is one of the finest ever made. Testament's superbly vivid recording reproduces with immediacy the texture of Furtwangler reading.
A unique interpretation, a true landmark in the history of Bruckner recording. Strongly recommended.
Many thanks to Amazon reviewer Jeff Lipscomb who has recommended this recording in his extremely accurate and useful reviews.

Cathedral Architecture in Sound.......2000-11-25

Among producers of historical re-issues, Testament ranks high, and in the case of Wilhelm Furtwängler's 1949 Bruckner Eighth Symphony, they have done music-lovers an exceptionally fine service. While Furtwängler made relatively few commercial recordings, German radio engineers before and during and after the war recorded many of his concerts for delayed broadcast. From 1942, the chosen medium for these archival documents was magnetic tape. While not precisely high fidelity, the wartime tapes demonstrate acceptable sound; the situation improves somewhat after the war, with better equipment coming on-line. Perhaps the best-known and most spectacular of these recorded concerts is the 1951 Brahms First Symphony from North German Radio in Hamburg, but given the possibilities of contemporary digital remastering, a large number of these tapes have at last yielded their precious inner secrets. This is especially true of Testament's digital re-recording of the 14 March 1949 Berlin Bruckner performance, a so-called Magnetophon Concert without an audience transmitted live but also taped for subsequent re-broadcast. The quiet auditorium made for studio-like conditions. (A 15 March performance is afflicted by ubiquitous audience noise that seems to distract Furtwängler from some of his purpose.) Despite his reputation for taking Bruckner at "heavenly length," Furtwängler turns in a fairly swift reading of this mighty symphony. He keeps the Adagio under twenty-six minutes (living conductors in our day regularly stretch it to thirty or beyond); and he brings in the Finale at twenty-two minutes and fifty eight seconds (again, living interpreters take much longer.) One reason for Furtwängler's dislike of studio-sessions was their stop-and-go character, even after tape came into use. In the Magnetophon Concert, there is no starting-and-stopping. Furtwängler gives the uninterrupted performance that we hear. The engineers do no editing after the fact. This alone accounts for much of our sense of organic unity in Furtwängler's "take." What I call "swiftness" generally in regard to tempi means specifically in the case of the opening Allegro Moderato an urgency that we otherwise rarely hear in this music. Where A Georg Tintner or a Sergiu Celibidache attempts to dissolve the notes into mystical yearning, Furtwängler gives Bruckner's piety a sinewy, striving embodiment. So too in the Scherzo: It is muscular and determined rather than pastoral and jocular. John Ardoin, in "The Furtwängler Record," refers to the Tristanesque atmosphere of the Adagio. I disagree. As Furtwängler discovers, Bruckner seeks no dissolution, neither into divinity nor into eros; rather, he opens up a vast space for contemplation, like the nave of a great cathedral. Furtwängler was a reader of Oswald Spengler; Spengler said that Western music amounted to architecture in sound; that is how Furtwängler understands Bruckner's Eighth. Furtwängler's Finale gallops along quite rapidly, compared again with Celibidache or Tintner, and one gets the impression (as one did in the First Movement) of spiritual urgency rather than mystical transfiguration. (Mystical transfiguration there is, in Bruckner, aplenty - see the Ninth Symphony.) With excellent notes, this CD ought to be snapped up by Brucknerians, by Furtwänglerians, and by all those interested in historical performances from he mid-century.

Definitive Quality Sound Recording Of B's 8 by Furtwaengler!.......1998-10-19

Recently I made a careful study of the two performances of the Bruckner Eighth that were conducted by the great artist, Wilhelm Furtwaengler, in Berlin in April of 1949. The readings were done one day apart: on the 14th (the present Testament CD release) at the Municipality House, Berlin-Dahlem, and on the 15th of April at the Titania-Palast, a large motion picture theatre employed for the subscription concerts of the Berlin Philharmonic (since the old Philharmonie had been bombed to rubble during the War.)

In ten pages or so of analysis, which I posted on an internet newsgroup, I gave my review of the qualities of both recordings. For the technical aspect of sound, this Testament release wins hands down!

The performance is strong, dramatic, and yet careful, without the will-o-the-wisp momentary inspirations that sometimes came to Furtwaengler in front of a receptive audience. As a former recording engineer and historian of sound techniques, I noted that the "Magnetophon" tape recording was wide range, with crisp, generally clean highs, and powerful low frequencies. The radio engineer who made the tape adjusted the volume so that the soft passages would be audible during typical reception, so the hushed moments are boosted and somewhat out of proportion to the original intentions of the conductor. Yet, the transfer by Testament's digital engineer Paul Baily is very fine, with honest monaural sound, properly edited (unlike previous LP issues.)

The performance given the following day is an entirely DIFFERENT concept: wilder and more dramatice, it is faster and has greater intensity. Unfortunately, THAT taping was very distorted on all passages above about mezzo-forte: so much so that I find it a trial to the ear, despite the best efforts of the very skilled technicians at EMI records (it is contained in an interesting 3-CD set of historic Bruckner conducted by Furtwaengler, von Haussegger, and Kabasta, on EMI Classics 7234 5 66210 2 2.)

Tracks:

Announcer (Fades In Mid Sentence) - Paul Badura-Skoda
I. Allegro - Paul Badura-Skoda
II. Andante - Paul Badura-Skoda
III. Allegro - Paul Badura-Skoda
Announcer - Paul Badura-Skoda
Audience/Announcer - Paul Badura-Skoda
I. Allegro - Paul Badura-Skoda
II. Andante - Paul Badura-Skoda
III. Rondo. Allegro - Paul Badura-Skoda

Tracks:

Movement 1. Largo/Allegro Molto - Wilhelm Furtwangler
Movement 2. Menuetto/Trio I/Trio II - Wilhelm Furtwangler
Movement 3. Adagio - Wilhelm Furtwangler
Movement 4. Menuetto/Allegretto/Trio I/Trio II - Wilhelm Furtwangler
Movement 5. Romanze. Adagio/Allegretto - Wilhelm Furtwangler
Movement 6. Thema Et Variatonen (Andante) - Wilhelm Furtwangler
Movement 7. Rondo. Allegro Molto - Wilhelm Furtwangler
Movement 1. Molto Allegro - Wilhelm Furtwangler
Movement 2. Andante - Wilhelm Furtwangler
Movement 3. Menuetto. Allegretto - Wilhelm Furtwangler
Movement 4. Allegro Assai - Wilhelm Furtwangler

Customer Reviews:

Old-Fashioned Mozart.......2003-01-04

The two piano concertos are finally presented in honest transfers of actual transcription discs; previous Lp and CD editions have substituted other performances - or parts of other performances - and palmed off the result as Badura-Skoda/Furtwaengler! The real thing turns out to be fascinating, albeit romanticized in ways that will really annoy today's period instruments crowd. The real down side is the sound quality, which is truly wretched. That's disc One. Disc Two is a different story altogether, presenting two classic Furtwaengler/Vienna Philharmonic studio recordings (originally produced by EMI) in absolutely gorgeous transfers courtesy of M&A's great engineer Maggi Payne. This second disc is worth the price of the entire set, don't doubt it ..... The g minor symphony is played with great passion, but also with exquisite attention to orchestral balances and articulation. Its companion is a very rare Furtwaengler recording of the great Serenade for 13 Wind instruments. This may be nineteenth century Mozart, but it's so luscious I dare anybody to resist!

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