reviewed by Christopher Coleman
for RTHK Radio 4

Many professional musicians treat Bruckner as a somewhat unwelcome guest at the table of Romantic Music. That he and Mahler inherited Wagner and Beethoven’s contributions is undeniable; but Mahler, with his musical and emotional extremes and juxtapositions eventually became more popular, maybe even at Bruckner’s expense. This is due to many factors--perhaps the almost schizophrenic character of some of Mahler’s music resonates more closely with our own time than Bruckner’s more conventional but nonetheless complex musical world. Certainly Mahler is a more original composer in some regards--Bruckner was always content to work within a four-movement symphonic framework, where Mahler expanded that framework frequently. And Mahler is a more original orchestrator; Bruckner’s music is much more conventional in that respect. But probably the biggest issue is Bruckner’s sense of proportion and his fondness for repetition. Repetition was a necessary formal device in the world of 1887, where live performance was the only way to hear music; but in the face of a modern audience whose attention span may largely be shaped by television this music suffers in judgement. Let’s listen to a short example from the beginning of the scherzo to hear an obvious use of repetition in the construction of a theme--almost everything appears again immediately.

That Bruckner repeatedly revised his works at the suggestion of friends and even students may also cast some doubt on the ultimate quality of his music. Surely revision should be a composer’s right, and Mahler himself was no stranger to reworking; but the issue takes on added weight with Bruckner, who was under frequent pressure to make cuts and revisions. Music historians often portray him a weak-willed pawn of others, particularly his student Joseph Schalk, and the multiple editions of his music complicate the performance issue tremendously. Bruckner’s character was not, in fact, so pliable that he did not care about the revisions sometimes forced on him--in fact he often resented the necessity of submitting to a conductor’s requirements or losing a performance. But Maestro Gunter Wand, the conductor of this performance, takes great care to respect Bruckner’s original intent, and it shows. Here is a gorgeous selection from the first movement.