Romantic Dynamics

Anton Bruckner - Symphony No. 8 WAB 108 (Version 1890) in C minor
Beethoven Orchester Bonn / Stefan Blunier
2xSACD | SACD ISO (2.0/MCH): 4,62 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 1,34 | Full Artwork
Label/Cat#: MDG "Live" # 937 1713-6 | Country/Year: Germany 2011 | 5% Recovery Info
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic, Orchestral

"Even though Stefan Blunier's 2011 recording of Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 in C minor is a lot to digest, timed at over 88 minutes and stretched almost to the breaking point, this is a deeply compelling performance and an impressive recording that deserves all the time listeners devote to it. (…) MDG's natural, unprocessed sound is a great aid to capturing the orchestra's subtle dynamics, and the live recording has very few extraneous sounds. Highly recommended." ~AMG

Franz Schmidt - Symphony No. 4 / Intermezzo from "Notre Dame"
Beethoven Orchester Bonn - Stefan Blunier
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 173 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: MDG "Live" # 937 1631-6 | Country/Year: Germany 2010
Genre: Classical | Style: Late Romantic

…MDG’s 5.1/stereo/2+2+2 recording, apparently the first in a new series of live recordings by these artists, is superb. It is spacious with a wide dynamic range. The sound reaches the listener from a midway position in the Beethovenhalle, Bonn, that in no way limits the impact of the massive tam-tam strokes and cymbals at the climaxes, yet allows the strings to exhibit a pleasing smoothness and bloom. There is no trace to be heard of an audience or applause at the end of a work that demands reflective silence following its conclusion.Those contemplating purchasing a recording of this supremely beautiful masterpiece should definitely add Blunier’s eloquent reading to their shortlist.

After the successful release by the highly regarded Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra of recordings of two of Gustav Mahler’s symphonies, No. 1 in D major (EXCL00026) and No. 4 in G major (EXCL00048), this two channel double SACD set features a live performance of the composer’s massive Third Symphony in D minor.

Some composers have a strong influence on later generations. Sometimes this influence persists a long time after their death. Beethoven is just one example. It took a while before Brahms dared to write a symphony; he wasn't sure he could live up to the standard Beethoven had set. Another is George Frideric Handel. He was a man of the theatre and preferred to compose operas but it was mainly because of his oratorios that he was admired - and feared. Mozart was so impressed by Handel's oratorios that he arranged several of them and Haydn's oratorio 'Die Schöpfung' is unthinkable without the model of Handel's Messiah. The oratorio 'Die Könige in Israel' by Ferdinand Ries shows how long Handel's influence lasted. It shows the traces of Handel's style and yet for all this Ries feared the standard Handel had set. This explains the story behind the oratorio.

With this recital Shai Wosner declares himself a Schubertian of unfaltering authority and character. Entirely modern in style (tonally lean and sharply focused, never given to easy or sentimental options), he relishes every twist and turn in the so-called Reliquie Sonata, with its quasi-orchestral, defiantly unpianistic first movement and its astonishing second movement modulations (Alkan himself never wrote anything more boldly experimental). Unlike Richter in his monolithic recording, Wosner opts for the two completed movements rather than allowing the music to evaporate into thin air, displaying throughout a finely concentrated sense of music that achieves its vision and depth through extreme austerity.

Eugen Jochum (1 November 1902 – 26 March 1987) was an eminent German conductor. He became famous primarily as an interpreter of Anton Bruckner's works. He became the first conductor to perform a complete recording of the nine symphonies of this composer.