1878

The Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal directed by Yannick Nézet-Séguin comes to a conclusion of a 10 year project to record the complete symphonies of Anton Bruckner. The Fifth Symphonies was recorded in 2017 and is being released for the first time individually, in digital format only. Bruckner’s symphonies are often called ‘cathedrals of sound’ and the spiritually profound fifth symphony fully deserves this label. As with the seventh, eighth and ninth symphonies, Bruckner uses an even larger orchestra for this work.

The live recorded sound here is exceptionally fine, the occasional faint cough notwithstanding, both reflecting the excellence of the Semperoper acoustic and matching the majesty of Thielemann’s interpretation. The key to his approach is that he generates enormous grandeur without ever skirting bombast. Thielemann captures the Dionysian exhilaration of the Scherzo effortlessly without affectation, the lovely Trio relaxing into a paean to Mother Nature surely just as Bruckner intended.