Search - Bruckner :: Bruckner - Symphony No 1

Midlife crisis

C. Hill | Madison, WI USA | 01/11/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Vaclav Neumann and the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra find the long line of this symphony in a middle European performance that is patient but never plodding. Their approach allows the finale and especially the peroration in its coda to avoid bombast and succeed as the expressive and architectural peak of the four movements. While the musicians clearly savor the individual qualities of earlier movements, the weight of their approach inevitable sacrifices some of the first movement's vaunted sauciness, turning it towards irony. New and infrequent Bruckner listeners may well prefer a redition with brisker tempos. Those interested in an approach to Bruckner's First that finds grandeur and profundity as well as poetry will treasure this little known gem."

The best interpretation ever

Yoav Ben Yosef | 02/08/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've listened to a lot of interpretations of this Bruckner's symphony by karajan, Barenboim, Tintner, Jochum and more. Karajan was OK, all the rest less then OK, but this one by Vaclav Neumann is almost perfect. It is especially noticeable in the last movement, a very dramatic one with a lot of tension, which every performer except Neumann played way too fast. Highly recommended."