Heinde Haas

The Vienna Philharmonic, who have premiered four out of Bruckner's '9 Symphonies' are familiar to his music unlike any other orchestra. With Christian Thielemann they have one of the few Bruckner experts on their side. Bruckner (1824-1896) was an Austrian composer best known for his 'Symphonies', 'Masses' and 'Motets'. Bruckner was greatly admired by subsequent composers, including his friend Gustav Mahler.

Sony Classical releases the third installment of Christian Thielemann’s complete cycle of Anton Bruckner’s symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic – the orchestra’s first Bruckner cycle under a single conductor. “The claim that this orchestra is essentially the only genuine original sound ensemble for the music of Anton Bruckner should remain beyond dispute” raves Die Presse. The Vienna Philharmonic premiered four of Anton Bruckner’s nine symphonies, including No. 4 in 1881 and has enjoyed a unique relationship with the Austrian composer’s music since 1873. The Fourth was the first of Bruckner’s symphonies that Thielemann conducted.

What an outstanding release! Pavel Haas was one of the many Czech/Jewish composers interned by the Nazis at the Terezin concentration camp before being sent to the gas chambers at Auschwitz. His three string quartets are extraordinary pieces, continuing the line of development inaugurated by Janácek both in their exploration of unusual sonorities and in their use of folk and popular music for much of their melodic substance. The Quartets Nos. 2 and 3 previously were recorded by the Hawthorne Quartet as part of Decca’s Entartete Musik (Degenerate Music) series dedicated to works suppressed by the Nazi regime, but these performances are superior in every way.