Audition: Bruckner: Symphony No. 3 in D Minor - #Brucknerthon 2025

 Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Bernhard Haitink, Recorded 1963, Philips

This recording uses the 1877 Version of the Symphony (often called the “Wagner Symphony”). The Berky Bruckner Discography (https://www.abruckner.com/discography1/) says it’s the Oeser Edition (without the scherzo coda) though I don’t have the energy to discover if this is correct - the recording notes says 1877 with no publication cited.

When this recording was made Bruckner cycles were not a thing and whilst many great Austro/German conductors conducted some of them as far as I’m aware Haitink was the first to conduct all of them (by which I mean the numbered 9 symphonies). Some had a go No 3 but the number of editions of the scores was bewildering but the work was more visible than the first two symphonies - mostly for its preponderance of brass episodes. There are some lyrical elements too - well done here but it’s not Bruckner’s original which is regularly played - I heard that in London at the Proms and found it baffling and intermidable.

The current practice is go back to the first full score but this serves too only muddy the field and demonstrate what a hideous mixed of fragments they were. The 1877 is more fragmented than others but it probably has the greatest merit. In it provides an understanding of the Bruckner sound world and its syntax between Nos 1 & 2 and the maturer symphonies. To my ear there are too many times when Bruckner goes the long way round and I think too many places where no progress is made in the symphonic argument. Haitink doesn’t address the problem of the clunkiness of this work in this form and it might be scholarly, but others use more imagination which I think is justifiable given Bruckner’s rash propositions.

It’s worth noting I auditioned this recording on the Universal Blu Ray disc in the Haitink Bruckner box and it sounds luscious. The string lines are rich, the woodwind somewhat more wiry than Haitink was later to deploy. There’s no Tuba in this score and the Bass Trombone part was a bit lost. Climaxes were well set with fine brass and wind and strings in support. Inevitably with a big string section Haitink loses some details - but it’s a convincing sound picture.

Overall the recording is better than the work, which was refined by many hands to more satisfying shape and manners in future years.

Recording 9 out of 10

Interpretation 8 out of 10

Performance: 8 out of 10