When you think about it, it's odd that we've had to wait
so long to hear Bruckner's popular Romantic Symphony
as he first wrote it. Differences in minor details between
editions of the symphonies suffice to spawn reams of critical
and scholarly exegesis. Despite all this conductors apparently
deemed the original score of the Romantic unworthy
of consideration. Even its publication as part of the Leopold
Nowak edition had no avail . Since the "revisions"
amount to a wholesale rewrite, this original version holds
interest not merely for clichéd academic reasons - "an
insight into the composer's creative process" and so
forth - but as a satisfying symphonic construction in its
own right.
Predictably, some changes are clearly intended to correct
poorly-judged balances, as at bar 413 in the first movement,
where two unison flutes playing the theme simply can't hold
their own against the variegated brass activity. Elsewhere
we find the composer changing the sound and the sense of other
passages that work perfectly well as they stand, clarifying
textures, groping towards his distinctive, mature style.
The first movement sounds recognizable enough to begin
with. Before long, however, small differences from the later
version - a filled-in woodwind harmony here, some fresh counterpoint
there - cumulatively contribute to the creation of an unfamiliar
sound-world. The additional activity gives the movement a
fluid contour very different from the stark, granitic edges
of its final form. The more or less continuous flow reminded
me of César Franck's symphony. Among the few passages that
didn't survive the revisions, a spacious string chorale, introducing
the development, is striking.
At the start of the second movement, the string accompaniment,
sparse yet clearly rhythmic in the revision, sounds markedly
busier here, especially as Dennis Russell Davies interprets
the Andante, quasi allegretto designation - identical
to that in the later version - rather briskly. The agitated
undercurrent this adds to the suggested march rhythm pervades
this movement, not even letting up at the close as it normally
would. Beginning at bar 191, an open, widely-spaced texture,
most uncharacteristic of this composer, provokes an eerie
anticipation.
Next comes a standard-issue one-in-a-bar Scherzo similar
to Bruckner's others, rushing string figures and all, though
the soft, peremptory horn fanfare that launches it hints at
the bracing "hunting horn" movement to come. The
Trio sounds like simplicity itself, though the nervous
edge of light violin tremolos belies the theme's bucolic serenity.
We occasionally hear familiar motifs in the Finale,
but they are developed in unfamiliar ways: this movement,
too, would be substantially rewritten. It's easier to assimilate
the structure of this earlier form, because of the immediately
recognizable, ear-catching motifs, but it misses the irresistible
surge that emerges in the best performances of the revision.
Dennis Russell Davies has been indulging his intrepid side
in the recording studio: first the Hans Rott E major Symphony
for the CPO label, and now this. He sets judicious tempi -
save perhaps for the brisk Andante previously cited
- and keeps things moving in good order, a few questionable
agogics aside, while characterizing the individual episodes.
Under his direction, the Linz orchestra makes a rich, cushioned
tutti sound that never loses definition. The oboes
tend to dominate the woodwind choir, producing an appropriate
organlike color. The warm, well-balanced horns, on the other
hand, are too frequently homogenized into textural filler
where they should cut a stronger profile. The sound makes
a suitably full-bodied impact, though the opening soft tremolos
are lost in the ambience - wasn't digital recording supposed
to cure this? A touch of congestion invades the Finale's
first climax.
Stephen
Francis Vasta
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