Brucknerthon 2024 - Symphony No. 1 (Linz) SRO/Jawoski Pentatone SACD

Symphony No 1 (Linz vers)

Swiss Romande Orchestra/Marek Janowski

Janowski was I think the first conductor of a Bruckner symphony cycle to be available as SACD (that is higher resolution sound quality) and the first thing to point out is how well it turned out sonically.

Pentatone have a reputation for fine engineering and this recording illustrates many of the problems for those recording Bruckner symphonies and how they overcome them. It wasn’t the last either. The sound picture is immediate on the ear and somewhat closely miked at times. There are a few times when the recorded is a bit congested but that is largely a product of the rather crude use of higher volumes and

This version is the Linz version of the First symphony. Its four movements carry a good deal of interesting music but not sufficient variation or spirituality to turned heads. Since early performances of Bruckner symphonies were either problematic, uninspiring or chaotic it’s hard to pin this symphony as a mature work. I’d argue Bruckner wouldn’t create a great symphony until the Fifth but that debate is not going to be evidence here.

Three things need to be settled up front in many Bruckner recordingd - the unstable/unsettled score situation: the answer here this is now mostly settled on the two major candidates. Second the collective created by Bruckner’s keeness to put as much as he could into work - this sometimes trips both conductors and sound engineers and finally the sheer novelty for the audiences/orchestras which in earlier years couldn’t get their heads round Bruckner. Today this is exhibited by the dearth of recordings and certainly a lack of performances.

Some conductors have managed to interpret Bruckner’s appalling nickname for the work as a signal for high spirited approach. This works sometimes, I like Abbado and - in 2010 - Oramo who grasped the nettle in the 2020 Edinburgh Festival cycle. Both were feisty, unencumbered and very free flowing. But let’s drop the appellation.

Janowski is an older style of conductor and more keen to endure the heavy weather than try and ignore it. He also doesn’t have an orchestra with a Bruckner sound profile/quality though they are of a central tradition. Paradoxically they can here drop into a mode as light as they were for Ansermet 75 years ago. The strings are lithe and the woodwind light.

The score demands deep basses and Janowski obliges but not all the time. Sometimes the high strings come over as congested for example in the pages approaching the recapitulation in the first movement.

The second and third movements should be easy pickings for Janowski - and the orchestra perform well - but again winds, and occasionally winds and brass disappear in the engineering. That said the Trio is a delight.

The finale is a bit of a nightmare - the congested string writing trips up the listener and the players. But Janowski battles through.

I have to have a First Symphony in my Brucknerthon but it really a slog, lightened by the glimpses of the mastery to come.

The next symphony is, sadly, more of a problem.