Rassling with the symphonic adagios of Bruckner and Mahler, Part 1

NOTE TO READERS: It was hard enough getting this post strung out from start to finish. When that was done, I knew that one thing I'd most feared had happened: There are too many files, and these files are big ones, to have much hope of the post loading properly or easily. It already wasn't going to be finished at the finish line, but now it would have to be split in two. Part 2 will post pretty much any time now. -- Ken

[No. 7] Adagio - Sehr feierlich und sehr langsam
(Adagio - Very solemn and very slow)

[No. 8] Adagio - Feierlich langsam, doch nicht schleppend
(Adagio - Solemnly slow, yet not dragging)

The first statement of the main theme of the Adagios of Anton Bruckner's Seventh and Eighth Symphonies, played by, respectively: [7] the Berlin Phil under Seiji Ozawa and [8] the Vienna Phil under Herbert von Karajan


WHILE ALL ADAGIOS ARE SLOW MOVEMENTS,
ONLY SOME SLOW MOVEMENTS ARE ADAGIOS

And here we hear prime specimens of "NOT AN ADAGIO" slow movements from the undisputed masters of symphonic adagio-making:

BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 4 in E-flat:
ii. Andante quasi allegretto

Munich Philharmonic, Rudolf Kempe, cond. Acanta, recorded in the Bürgerbräukeller, Dec. 14-15, 1975 & Jan. 20-21, 1976

MAHLER: Symphony No. 6 in A minor:
iii. [or ii.] Andante moderato
[Mahler himself, you'll recall, was of two minds about the order of the symphony's middle movements, the Andante moderato and the Scherzo]

Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell, cond. Columbia-CBS-Sony, recorded live in Severance Hall, October 1967

by Ken

In last week's post, we "chart[ed] our course from Beethoven's visionary symphonic adagio to the great symphonic adagios of Bruckner and Mahler," which is the course that lies ahead of us. It hasn't worked out quite the way -- that is, any of the ways -- it was meant to, but here we are, somewhere between Plan C and Plan D, forging ahead, starting with this idea I had (it seemed like a good idea at the time) that it might be helpful, in getting a handle on these symphonic adagios, to separate out slow movements that aren't adagios.

Okay, the performances I've slotted in above are skewed just a little, in the direction of "non-adagio-tizing" these specimen movements -- with performances that underscore these movements' non-adagio-ness, in particular Szell's almost breezy take on the Mahler 6's "Andante moderato" tempo marking. Still just drawing on the SC archive (meaning that these are performances we've heard before, unless a clip was made for a post that never got posted), which is overflowing with performances of this movement, which I love a lot, I could have inserted these broader and emotionally weightier statements --

MAHLER: Symphony No. 6 in A minor:
iii. [or ii.] Andante moderato

New Philharmonia Orchestra, Sir John Barbirolli, cond. EMI, recorded in Abbey Road Studio No. 1, London, Sept. 26-27, 1969

London Philharmonic Orchestra, Klaus Tennstedt, cond. EMI, recorded live in the Royal Festival Hall, November 1991

I love pretty much everything about the Barbirolli M6, not least the bold and soul-stirring Andante moderato, and I also love the darker, more insinuating quality of the Tennstedt live M6 Andante moderato. (I very much like the 1983 studio recording Tennstedt made as part of his LPO Mahler cycle, but I'm happy EMI also issued the later live performances of M6 and M7.)

Similarly with the Bruckner 4 Andante quasi allegretto --

I love Rudolf Kempe's energetic, full-throated Bruckner 4, and in the Andante quasi allegretto, I like that he takes note of the "like" or "as if" allegretto qualification of the basic Andante tempo marking, without diminishing the scale of the movement. (The Munich Phil isn't in the same class as the Berlin and Vienna Phils, but during his time as its chief conductor, from 1967 till his death in 1976, they made some fine records, including a live Bruckner 5 for Acanta and one of my favorite Beethoven symphony cycles, for EMI.) Still, I could have pulled these performances out of the archive --

BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 4 in E-flat:
ii. Andante quasi allegretto

Staatskapelle Dresden, Herbert Blomstedt, cond. Denon-Deutsche Schallplatten, recorded in the Lukaskirche, Sept. 7-11, 1981

Concertgebouw Orchestra (Amsterdam), Eugen Jochum, cond. Live performance from the Concertgebouw, Jan. 10, 1975

Herbert Blomstedt (seen here in a photo from the last year or two) was 55-ish, with more than four decades of Bruckner performances and recordings still ahead of him, when he recorded Bruckner 4 and 7 in 1980-81 during his time as chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden, and it's recordings like these (I think also of Rudolf Kempe's 1970-76 Richard Strauss series for EMI and Deutsche Schallplatten and Kurt Sanderling's 1971-72 Brahms symphony cycle for Eurodisc) that make the Staatskapelle sound like one of the world's supreme orchestras, with glowing, responsive strings and equally burnished wind choirs. And at 55 Blomstedt had plenty of wisdom, patience, and interpretive vision -- it's always a treat to return to these recordings.

Then there's Eugen Jochum with the Concertgebouw, with which he had a long relationship, including the time (1961-63) following the death of Eduard van Beinum when he served as co-conductor with the young Bernard Haitink -- the best hope for a Dutch successor but thought at the time to be still too young to take sole charge. If there's any orchestra that might be thought of as more Bruckner-ready -- in a symphony that is, among other things, a showpiece for the best orchestra you can muster -- than the Staatskapelle Dresden as heard with Blomstedt, it's the Concertgebouw. And no conductor has ever had a surer grasp of Bruckner's musical language and structure, the ways he causes music to move.

I should make clear that my choice of the live Concertgebouw performance shouldn't be taken as a slight to the Br4s in either of Jochum's Bruckner symphony cycles -- both of them, interestingly a bit broader than the 1975 Concertgebouw Adagio. In particular the June 1965 recording with the Berlin Philharmonic (one of the five symphonies in his DG cycle recorded with Berlin; the others were done with Jochum's own Bavarian Radio Symphony) is notable for exceptionally full, purpose-laden orchestral textures. I was sorry not to be sharing that performance as well, until it occurred to me that we can easily include it as well -- not to mention the 1975 remake with -- of all orchestras -- the Staatskapelle Dresden in his Bruckner cycle co-produced by EMI and Deutsche Schallplatten.

Berlin Philharmonic, Eugen Jochum, cond. DG, recorded in the Jesus-Christus-Kirche, June 1965

Concertgebouw Orchestra (Amsterdam), Eugen Jochum, cond. EMI, recorded in the Lukaskirche, Dec. 1-7, 1975

WELL THEN, WHAT IS AN ADAGIO?
For Bruckner, a seemingly innate mode of musical observation.
For Mahler, it seems almost a matter of musical destiny.

Carlo Maria Giulini (1914-2005), as noted, is going to be our lead guide through the adagios of Bruckner -- and will accompany us into Mahler.

Of the nine symphonies Bruckner gave numbers, all but two have thusly named Adagios. We've just heard the one legitimate exception: Br4, with its clearly non-adagio Andante moderato/ And we've previously heard the other seeming exception, in the March 25 post "Our ongoing Seiji Ozawa remembrance sidetracked me into some aural pondering of the symphonic adagio": The slow movement of Br2, although often identified as an Adagio, seems to have been editorially determinted to be officially designated "Andante." But I think all we have to do is listen to it again to know that it's a proper Adagio. So let's do that: listen again.

For starters, we're going to rehear the wonderful Giulini-Vienna Symphony Br2 "Adagio." In the March 25 post we also heard quite lovely performances by Eugen Jochum and Günther Wand. Feel free to go back and listen to them again. Instead we're going to hear a performance conducted by the seven-years-younger brother of Eugen Jochum, Georg-Ludwig Jochum (1919-1970), recorded for broadcast in 1944 (You can find a bit more information about this recording on John F. Berky's abruckner.com website.)

BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 2 in C minor:
ii. Andante [Adagio?] - Feierlich, etwas bewegt
(Solemn, somewhat agitated)


[ed. Nowak] Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. EMI-Testament, recorded in the Grosser Saal of the Musikverein, Dec. 8-10, 1974

[ed. Haas] Reichs Bruckner Orchester (Bruckner Orchestra Linz), Georg-Ludwig Jochum, cond. Recorded by the RRG (Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft) in the Grosser Saal of the Vienna Musikverein, Sept. 5-7, 1966 [released by Urania in 1951, by Tahra in 1996]


BEFORE WE PROCEED TO THE LAST THREE BRUCKNER
SYMPHONIES, LET'S CONNECT WITH A MAHLER ADAGIO

Which is where we'll pick up in Part 2.

#