Search - Bruckner, Ormandy, Phl :: Symphonies 5 & 7

The world's best neo-romantic orchestra and conductor

Charles Emmett | Oroville, California (the boonies) | 07/18/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am adding remarks here because I just saw 'Lord of The Ring, Return of the King'. This symphony could have been the soundtrack. Tragedy in the first movement. Surreal and mystical in the second. The coming of the final battle in the third, and the final battle and the overcoming of the dark lord and the dissolving of the ring!!I used to have the Walter recording of the 7th, which still ranks among the best.I recently puchased the Ormandy recording of the 5th. If this duo becomes available you just might want to buy it for the Ormandy PHO performance.This is the best sound I can remember on a Columbia/Sony disc for the PHO. The next best is the recording they did of Bartok's 'Concerto for Orchestra', which is still the best in the catalogue.The Philadelphians under Ormandy and Stokowski created an instrument like no other, and this performance shines as bright as the sun in the day. Awesome power, yet the strings are so lush and beautiful-let's say that I felt that I had died and gone to Heaven during the Adagio. How did Ormandy teach them to play with such lushness and beauty and power also? There are sections in the adagio where I know those sounds cannot be duplicated by any other orchestra. I got chills and was sure that angels were playing those strings. I recently wrote a review for Ormandy's and the PHO recording of Mahler's 'Das Lied von der Erde' and said that I thought that it was the greatest ormandy PHO recording of them all. Now I must add this one to that list. Mgnificent from first note to lastI keep hearing toutings for the Concertgebouw as the 'Mahler' or neo-romantic orchestra. Balony! This is the greatest of them all and this recording shines like no other. I do acknowledge the greatness of the Concertgebouw, though. They have the advantage of one of the world's great concert halls.Bruckner uses his melodies as a juxtaposition of power and then softness. Mahler as a change of mood. No moodswings here. Just Power and then more power and then soft and gentle and tones that are so sublime that you feel yourself lifting out of your chair and almost flying. Tears and goosebumps at the same time. I had never heard such a tragic, operatic, even, orchestra that would overpower Wagner. The last movement would have blown down the evil gate and tower of Sauron.The first movement, for instance. Several new melodies, or themes are introduced and these are written as if one against the other. It is not a symphonic sonata form. It is almost a rondo; theme, variation, new theme, variation yet capitulation to the end of the movement. And the mood swings in these different melodies; tragic, introspective, then moving toward an inexorable climax. He seems to explore one of the first movement themes in the next movements and then brought back together in the final movement in an absolutely magnificent way. The fugue-like section in the middle of the final movement is absolutely magnificent, the organist gone mad and the orchestra is magnificent in the playing of it. In my mind this is Bruckner's most creative and spontaneous work, which starts off a little 'crazy' yet comes together in the final movement in a masterful way. (I realized that I am repeating myself here, but it bears repeating). I heard Mahler for the first time, in the Scherzo-a little of Mahler's 4th, I think. Did Mahler look to Bruckner for some inspration? You bet he did! It sure is here!Such masterful playing by the orchestra. the conductor and orchestra as one. I have seen them live and owned nearly all of their recordings. When Ormandy conducted the string sections would move as one. It was like watching the wind blow tall grasses on a plain. If we could just get Ormandy's recording of Mahler's Second I would definitely be in heaven.Has anyone ever noticed that after Maestro Ormandy died a lot of the major orchestras moved the cello section inside the violas? He set the standard for the neo-romantic sound. Now the sounding holes for the violas are facing the back of the hall so you lose the beautiful tone of them. You don't get the flow of the lower register strings to the upper register. Dumb!
Listen to all of the recordings Ormandy has recorded and you will always hear the flow of the lower strings, on the right, into the first and second section of the violins. Velvet! Absolute velvet.I urge you to go out and dig up and find this and implore Sony to reissue this along with the seventh. (I got it at Archive) but I really enjoy shopping at Amazon more.I say this again, this is a fantastic recording! Don't miss it!
It definitely belongs in a serious collectors library."

5 stars for Bruno Walter's 7th

King Lemuel | Puyallup, WA | 08/04/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ormandy's 5th is posted at Rhapsody and it sounds pretty good. I am not knocking it, but I mainly wanted to chime in about Walter's 7th.



I have Walter's Bruckner 4th, 7th, 9th with the Columbia Symphony recorded c. 1960 on vinyl LPs. The 4th and the 9th are very good. The 7th is WONDERFUL. My 7th is on a double LP gatefold Columbia Odyssey release from 1979 and is nearly flawless during playback. Walter was among the first to make GREAT Bruckner recordings in true hi fi stereo in the late 50s with the Columbia Symphony. He aslo made wonderful recordings of Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, Schubert, Mozart, Dvorak, etc. with the Columbia Symphony.



I highly recommend Walter's Bruckner Columbia recordings, but I would steer clear of his earlier, very less than hi fi, historical recordings from the 30s and 40s. His early 50s mono sounds OK for its time and is better than the historical stuff, but the sound does not compare with today's DDD, while his Columbia Symphony recordings do hold their own against DDD.



Update March 17, 2008:



Rhapsody has recently posted a multi CD box "Original Jackets" by Bruno Walter that is mostly his late 50s, early 60s Columbia Symphony recordings (mostly in stereo!). This set is about half Mahler and the rest Bruckner 4, 7, and 9 plus Te Deum and Wagner's orchestral music from his operas. I am not a huge Mahler fan but I had been looking on Ebay for his Wagner set so this was a welcome posting for me.

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