Bruckner - Symphony 2 [Solti-Chicago Symphony Orchestra]
Bruckner - Symphony 2 [Solti-Chicago Symphony Orchestra]
Bruckner's earlier Symphonies have never received the fame his later ones have, two unnumbered Symphonies, and numbers 1 and 2, when we get to the third, then you can hear the real Bruckner emerging, so this is somehow a transitional Symphony, a link between amateur and professional if you will, this is probably only the second time i've heard this Symphony, so it's hard to describe a work i'm not familiar with, but it certainly isn't sub standard Bruckner, a Symphony well worth hearing.
Sir Georg Solti passed away 13 years ago at the age of nearly 85, he was born in Hungary almost 100 years ago [1912], and he has lived a full happy life, and i feel he is a Brucknerian of great distinction, i especially like his interpretation of Bruckner's Fifth Symphony.
I was impressed with the second movement, it has a Brucknerian innocence to it, it has a greater tendency to have start / stops to it, but Bruckner would get better at fusing in themes and ideas, so that it all sounds so much more legato, Bruckner also uses a fair bit of string pizzicato, but already the trademark burnished horns are there, near the beginning there's a passage that sounds like it's lifted straight out of 'Harold In Italy' by Berlioz [0:39-1:09], about a third of the way through the movement comes the soothing reprise of the opening [5:11+], and it sounds so much better when it's repeated, than it does right at the beginning, and just after it the 'Harold In Italy' quote again [6:53-7:25], right near the end Bruckner brings back another reprise of the very opening [14:26+], this time slightly slower and very coda-esque, really it's a Symphony that i certainly need to get to know better to make a proper judgement on.
Here's Solti conducting the second movement on YouTube.
