Klemperer Recordings of Anton Bruckner

Those that have followed my articles regularly probably know that I have approached listening to the music of Anton Bruckner as requiring skills that are somewhat orthogonal to the skills encountered when listening to that composer’s predecessors (such as Johannes Brahms) or successors (such as Gustav Mahler). It would be fair to say that I owe much to San Francisco Symphony (SFS) Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt for cultivating the skill set I brought to listening to the Warner Classics Remastered Edition of recordings of Otto Klemperer conducting Bruckner symphonies. However, to my very pleasant surprise, this past February I discovered that there was also much to be gained from listening to a Bruckner symphony conducted by the current SFS Music Director, Esa-Pekka Salonen.

On the other hand, when it comes to “anthology listening,” my last Bruckner encounter took place a little over a year ago, when I was writing about the Warner Classics 70-CD box set of recordings made by conductor Kurt Masur. Sadly, this consisted of only two symphonies, only one of which, the fourth in E-flat major, named the edition that Masur had chosen. This struck me as a moderately annoying flaw, particularly for those that take their Bruckner listening seriously; and I am glad that the Klemperer collection is much more thorough in giving credit where credit is due.

The fact is that many (most?) of Bruckner’s scores went through multiple revisions. This has led to considerable effort on the part of Bruckner scholars when it comes to preparing a score that will be both suitable for performance and true to the composer’s intentions. The first of those scholars was Robert Haas, and Klemperer selected his edition of the composer’s 1881 version for recording the sixth symphony in A major. The other scores (with possibly one exception) that Klemperer used for recording were edited by Leopold Nowak. In order of their numbers, these are as follows:

• Symphony Number 4 in E-flat major, 1878/80 version
• Symphony Number 5 in B-flat major, 1878 version
• Symphony Number 7 in E major, 1885 version
• Symphony Number 8 in C minor, 1890 version
• Symphony Number 9 in D minor, 1884 version, consisting of only three movements at the time of Bruckner’s death

This makes for one of the more generous shares of Bruckner symphonies that will be encountered by many (most?) conductors. The seventh is perhaps the most interesting of these. As the Wikipedia page for this symphony observes, “Bruckner began writing it in anticipation of the death of Richard Wagner, who was in poor health.” Derek Watson’s Bruckner book reinforces a legend that Bruckner was working on the second movement when he learned that Wagner had died. The second movement of the symphony already had a “processional” motif, and the conductor Arthur Nikisch supposedly suggested that the music cite Wagner’s death by adding a cymbal clash and triangle to the final statement of that motif. Michael Tilson Thomas included those “special effects” when he conducted SFS in March of 2013, but they were removed in the 1885 publication. Personally, I feel that Nikisch’s idea was more than a little excessive; and anyone listening to Klemperer’s recording should be able to appreciate the profundity of Wagner’s death without the addition of any “special effects!”

I should probably conclude by noting that, even prior to the release of this Klemperer collection, I had enough Bruckner recordings in my collection for most to regard as too many. On the other hand, consider the composers that have been discussed prior to Bruckner: Johann Sebastian Bach, the coupling of Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, and Richard Wagner. All of them probably account for significant percentages in most collections accumulated by serious listeners. It is only when Bruckner is added to the list that eyebrows start to rise. Conductors like Klemperer (from the past) and Blomstedt (still with us) appreciate what an attentive listener can gain from a “Bruckner symphony experience.” The new Klemperer collection may be just the right offering to encourage such listeners to “take the plunge.”