Bruckner Symphony No. 4 Gunter Wand w Bpo

The Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks were linked by a long and intensive artistic collaboration, brought to an abrupt end by his death in October 2021. BR-KLASSIK now presents outstanding and as yet unreleased live recordings of concerts from the past years. This recording of Bruckner's Fourth Symphony documents concerts from January 2012 in Munich‘s Philharmonie im Gasteig.

Daniel Barenboim is an expert in exploiting the impact of cyclical performances of composers’ works: This time he focuses his sharp intellect on all six of Anton Bruckner’s mature symphonies. Der Tagesspiegel described Barenboim’s performance of the works with the Staatskapelle Berlin on six nearly consecutive evenings in June 2010 as a “superhuman” accomplishment and went on to praise how: “His Bruckner is conceived and performed very theatrically, like an opera without words.”Bruckner’s famous “Romantic” Symphony No. 4 forms the prelude to a spectacular DVD series from Accentus Music and Unitel Classica, exploring Bruckner’s symphonic cosmos.

Suddenly, and not before time, the Sixth Symphony of Bruckner is riding high. And deservedly so since it is the tersest of his mature symphonies and the most openly exultant. Unlike the superficially more alluring Fourth, it needs a real musician to direct it, no mere master of orchestral ceremonies. What's more, it needs a Brucknerian with a passion for musical logic, a musical realist rather than a musical romantic. As such it is a work better suited to a Rosbaud, a Klemperer, or a Wand rather than someone like Jochum or Furtwangler however inspirational they may be at certain critical moments in the score.

The Munich Philharmonic have arguably given more performances of Anton Bruckner’s music than any other orchestra. A great number of Bruckner recordings led by the many legendary conductors that have worked with the Munich Philharmonic are stored in the historical archive of the MPHIL Label including magnificent pieces with Sergiu Celibidache, Christian Thielemann, Rudolf Kempe, Günter Wand and Oswald Kabasta.