Bruckner, Wand

Dear Manni,

Not really unknown in the UK.

His long association with the BBC SO led to some memorable broadcasts, though he seemed not to make a commercial recordings in London, possibly because his reticent public personality certainly did not fit with the big media personality style that recording companies like nowadays. The cult of personality is so much more valued than talent these days ...

I would prefer one recording of a great work by Wand to the entire recorded output of several of our leading European conductors nowadays.

ATB from George

Dear George,

although Günter Wand did a fine job conducting great works like the symphonies from Schubert or Beethoven, Bruckner was clearly his favourite composer.

As far as I know he published at least three ( nearly ) complete sets of his symphonies, the last one with the BPO, shortly before he died. Nevertheless the second recording produced during the nineties with the NDR Symphony Orchestra - as shown in the links above - seems to be his best attempt.

Of course, Bruckner is not enjoyable every day, but sometimes I like his music, which imo sounds very transcendental.

All the best

Manfred

Dear Manni,

There were several broadcasts of the Great C Major - Schubert Symphony Number Nine - conducted by Wand, which were superb, each one seemingly even more sublime than the previous one from a month or two earlier.

Some fine Beethoven as well, though Bruckner was not my favourite composer in those days, and in the meantime became more of a favourite, and has retreated again for me, as I have found solace more and more in Bach and Haydn above the noisier, and much more time consuming works ...

Furtwangler described Bruckner's inspirations as being like flightless eagles, with such potential, and yet being so large that they could not fly. He also referred to the starts [of works that], Bruckner composed as being without musical parallel, having such potential.

Furtwangler admired Bruckner's music and frequently gave a selection of the formally numbered symphonies starting with Four, but omitting Six, which he gave three times only and also refrainingt from peformances of the Ninth after 1944, I believe.

I think Wand's reading here is far more in the spirit of the music than Furtwangler's though, and the setting of Lubeck Dom seems as apt as playing Elgar's The Dream Of Gerontius in a great English Cathedral like hereford as well.

Thanks for posting.

ATB from George

quote:

Originally posted by GFFJ:
Not really unknown in the UK.

His long association with the BBC SO led to some memorable broadcasts....

I saw Wand conduct Brucker twice at the Proms; the 8th and, my personal favourite, the 5th. For the first one Wand looked completely knackered when he walked on and conducted with only the smallest guestures - I learned later that he had been very ill and was still weak. The following year, the little man was much more energised and the 5th was truely memorable - I could hardly speak for 30 minutes afterwards.

As far as the recordings go, the one of the 8th in Lubeck Catherdral is one of my favourites. The reverberation in the big space is huge and the big Bruckner pauses are not so empty.