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SACD Review

Anton Bruckner

Symphony #4

Orchestre des Champs Elysées/Philippe Herreweghe
Harmonia Mundi HMC901921

Symphony #5

Orchestre des Champs Elysées/Philippe Herreweghe
Harmonia Mundi HMC902011

Symphony #7

Orchestre des Champs Elysées/Philippe Herreweghe
Harmonia Mundi HMC801857 Hybrid Multichannel SACD

Also available on CD HMC901857:
Amazon - UK - Germany - Canada - France - Japan - ArkivMusic - JPC

Philippe Herreweghe's Harmonia Mundi recordings of Bruckner's 4^th, 5^th, and 7^th symphonies with the Orchestre des Champs Elysées have met a mixed reception. Some reviewers have been downright hostile – e.g. this review of the 4^th by David Hurwitz. I have a much more positive response. There are real benefits to listening to Bruckner's symphonies played by a smaller orchestra – as Herreweghe points out in the booklet accompanying the 7^th, the balance of his forces is pretty close to that of the Leipzig Gewandhaus in the 1880s. And the use of period instruments and gut strings adds new timbres and sonorities. He is not a purist about editions, but does leave out the cymbal clash in the Adagio on the 7^th (which makes good sense in the context of his overall approach – although including it works well for many other conductors).

The real strengths of Herreweghe's approach are, first, how the smaller orchestra allows the finer details of Bruckner's orchestration to emerge and, second, his grasp of the verticality of Bruckner's scores. On this second point, and as one might expect from a conductor so steeped in Bach, Herreweghe does wonderful job with the heavily contrapuntal 5^th (particularly the fugue and double fugue in the final movement). He typically adopts fairly constant tempi. This generally works well, although the slow movement of the 5^th has its longeurs and the overall architecture of some of the longer movements occasionally gets blurred.

Herreweghe's Bruckner is much more the religious symphonist than the Romantic Wagner enthusiast. There is a good deal to be learnt from listening to him in this light. The most recent of these recordings was 2009. It's about time for an 8th and a 9^th. And, for that matter, why not a 6^th and a 3^rd?

Copyright © 2012, José Luis Bermúdez