Search - Anton Bruckner, Christian Thielemann, Munich Philharmonic :: Bruckner: Symphony No. 5

Relavatory recording of a wonderful Bruckner symphony

Daniel L. Ayala | Columbia, SC United States | 06/16/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Some of the points offered in the other review of this recording I will echo. My complaint with the other review is his/her obvious affinity and love for Sergiu Celibidache. While I recognize this particular conductor as a pretty good interpreter of Bruckner's music, he is not the end all to his music. If you can put all that aside and get down to what this music says to you we tell a different story.



Thieleman's recording, having ascended to the director position of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, is a revelation. In the liner notes the conductor talks about his take on recording this great symphony casting aside the notion that this should be viewed as church music and discusses the nature-like quality of this piece. In listening to it in this phrame of reference - it makes sense!



What I like about this recording? It is a wonderfully atmospheric recording, full of depth, architecture, and warmth. The strings are sensual at times; biting in others. The brass in particular are right on. And, what so many other recordings lack are achieved in this recording - the low brass and bass instruments are brought out to form a more perfect, wholistic picture. If you want to make the chruch-like comparison - bruckner sculpted his music on this catherdral-esque sound and its achieved in this performance. All the elements are brought together and maintain a beautiful balance throughout. The finale alone is worth playing over and over again. There is so much triumph, regality, and emotion.



Bravo to Mr. Thieleman for producing in what is in my opinion the most exciting 5th recording to date. I say this after hearing some outstanding conductors do admirable 5ths like Barenboim, Celibidache, von Karajan, Knapperstbusch, and Wand."

Bruckner, Thielemann, And Munich

Erik North | San Gabriel, CA USA | 08/10/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If one looked thirty years ago, there were very few recordings of Bruckner's Fifth Symphony around (as opposed to those of the composer's fourth, seventh, and eighth). Now, they are quite commonplace. How does this happen, especially with a composer like Bruckner who was so often misunderstood in his time, and whose symphonies are often so long and so large that they test the patience of even the most hardened and jaded classical music listeners?



One need only look at this recording of the Bruckner Fifth, made in late 2004 by the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and its young and highly-sought-after music director Christian Thielemann. Like Giuseppe Sinopoli's 1999 Dresden recording (also for Deutsche Grammophon, and reviewed by me earlier on), Thielemann's Munich approach to this grandiose piece is very much in the tradition codified by conductors like Eugen Jochum, Bernard Haitink, Sergiu Celibedache (one of Thielemann's predecessors in Munich) and others who specialized in this particular composer. The tautness of the shimmerings of the strings is very evident; the massive brass chorales, particularly at the enormous climax of the fourth movement, are incredibly powerful (indeed, one could detect the influence of those chorales on John Williams' score for the 1977 suspense film BLACK SUNDAY); and the rumbling timpani at the end of both the first and fourth movements has the right sonic impact.



Incredibly, as with Leonard Bernstein's 1979 Concertgebouw account of Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis" (an 81-minute recording), Thielemann's Bruckner 5th runs a jaw-dropping 82 minutes, and yet the D.G. people have slammed it all onto one CD, ensuring that the epic mood of the work gets preserved, but that the sound quality stays high. Very highly recommended for anyone interested in Bruckner in general, and this huge symphonic edifice in particular."

Turning the Bruckenr Fifth into Parsifal -- it actually work

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 05/19/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As earlier reviewers have noted, this is a very long Bruckner fifth at 82 min., with Thielemann taking longer in each movement than almost any rivals except for Celibidache and (in the Adagio) Karajan. (I am not referring back to historical recordings by Furtwanlger and Knappertsbusch.) The allure of slowness in such an expansive work isn't hard to find, but the Fifth has many special problems. It is disjointed, with each new episode changing gears into unrelated territory. It's quite hard to make a convincing whole of the work. Even the most basic question -- should you dramatize the stark differences or subdue them? -- is by no means easy to answer. Furtwangler chose to dramatize them in the extreme -- each brass entry was apocalyptic, each chorale a spiritual meditation. celibidache went the other way and established a prevailing mood of mystery that sounded seamless.



Thielemann opts for Celi's side of the equation. This isn't a surprise; he made his name with readings of Beethoven and Schumann that looked backward, all but imitating Knappertsbusch's extreme deliberations. Can he hold these slow tempos together? I think so. The atmosphere is quiet almost throughout, the phrasing meditative and patient. What comes to mind is that this is Bruckner played like Parsifal, another meditative work punctuated by passionate outcries. No old hands will mis the point that the Munich Phil. was Celibidache's orchestra; they must be used to showing patience. On his own, however, Thielemann has a sure instinct for moving the music forward emotionally, never letting the line sag or the mood to grow dull. A comparison with Harnoncourt's version with the Vienna Phil. (RCA/BMG) immediately reveals which orchestra is the great one, but that doesn't really matter much here, and DG's orchestral sound is first rate.



I have no hesitation calling this Bruckner Fifth a complete success, and one of Thielemann's best recordings."