A “Complete” Account of Bruckner’s Symphonies

Cover of the box set being discussed (courtesy of Naxos of America)

The last time I did a “deep dive” into the music of Anton Bruckner was during my tenure with Examiner.com in the summer of 2013. That was when Profil released its 20-CD box set, Anton Bruckner: The Collection. At that time, my knowledge of Bruckner’s music was sadly minimal. This provided me with an opportunity to get to know the full canon of the symphonies, along with an introduction to his sacred music, chamber music, and keyboard music.

This past July I learned that Naxos would release a “complete versions” account of the Bruckner symphonies. Markus Poschner led recordings of all eleven symphonies with eighteen versions among them, conducting both the Bruckner Orchester Linz and the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. Where there was adequate room, there were additional tracks for movements associated with the symphonies that were subsequently rejected. These include an early Scherzo for the first symphony, based on an edition by Wolfgang Grandjean, Leopold Nowak’s edition of the 1876 Adagio movement intended for the third symphony, and the “Country Fair” (Volksfest) movement that Bruckner had planned as a finale for his fourth symphony, edited by Benjamin Korstvedt. (Korstvedt was also responsible for the publication that accounted for all of the versions in this collection, which are included in the New Anton Bruckner Complete Edition.)

How significant is this completeness? Clearly, the answer to that question depends on the listener’s interest in the Bruckner canon. Once again I find myself reminded of a slogan for the Sunday edition of The New York Times that was popular during my student days: “You don’t have to read it all, but it’s good to know it’s all there!” My opportunities to listen to Bruckner in performance have been few and not particularly satisfying. However, rather than dismissing my interest in the composer, those encounters made me more curious about them. As a result, I continue to treasure my Profil collection.

However, this new Naxos release takes a “deeper dive” into the symphonies than the Profil release could accommodate. The fact is that it is only through a commitment to listening to each work on multiple occasions that one can begin to appreciate the ways in which Bruckner explored new perspectives on the very concept of a symphony. When a work went through multiple editions, that commitment extends to accounting for the changes from one edition to the next. At the very least, I now know that, when I have an opportunity to listen to a concert performance of a Bruckner symphony, I shall have no trouble being well-prepared for the experience!