Bruckner - Symphony 5 [Solti-Chicago Symphony Orchestra]
Back in 2008 i played these discs for the first time, late August, sitting on a park bench near my home, and it was a revelation!, this got to be my 'recording of the month' then, now this is the sixth time i've listened to it, and i haven't done much listening of anyone else playing it [only Harnoncourt / RCA], so it still remains a bit of a mystery to me, this time i felt cooler to the work, or at least to start with, the first two movements were 'mere' very good, but the Symphony got better as it went along, so the last movement was now its highlight, this disc appeared in my Blog three years ago [7th October 2012].
Georg Solti was Hungarian, he died in 1997 at the age of 84, he made this recording in 1980, the front cover shows a small portrait of Solti, lettering small and large in brown and white, horizontal and vertical, all with an orange background, i like the results.
Well like i said, it was the last movement which was tremendous, the whole Symphony seems to build up to a climax, and if the first three movements pose all the questions, then the last movement has all the answers!, it's the longest movement on this performance, nearly 24 minutes, the opening is a slow Adagio, pizzicato on double basses, and almost a string symphony over that [0:00-0:45], i really love the opening, this movement is rather a start / stop / start thing at first, love the oboe playing the main tune in a melancholy way [1:20-1:40], the brass of course have have their loud say [5:36-6:22], fanfares over frantic strings, it's a thrilling moment, and again a little while later they have a regal / noble triple fanfare [7:04-8:15], Bruckner really likes to blast your ears off!, there's a thrilling large section just after the middle, where the strings start up a complex fugue of sorts [12:33+], all zigzag rhythms, increasingly punctuated by brass fanfares [13:13+], it goes on for ages, this must be my favourite section of this movement, Bruckner keeps it going on and on [-15:08], love it when the brass fanfares come back in [17:55-18:45], it's good to hear the different brass instruments, awash with those driving strings in the background, the final threads are majestic, it's a brass festival, the brass seems to keep outdoing itself [21:19+ / 21:56+ / 22:56+], working its way up the levels to something really climatic, love the way the timpani has a loud roll right at the end [23:27-23:37], what a thrilling piece of music, sadly Bruckner never heard this Symphony himself in his lifetime!, i hope he's up there listening to it all now.
Here's Celibidache conducting the fourth movement on YouTube.
Georg Solti was Hungarian, he died in 1997 at the age of 84, he made this recording in 1980, the front cover shows a small portrait of Solti, lettering small and large in brown and white, horizontal and vertical, all with an orange background, i like the results.
Well like i said, it was the last movement which was tremendous, the whole Symphony seems to build up to a climax, and if the first three movements pose all the questions, then the last movement has all the answers!, it's the longest movement on this performance, nearly 24 minutes, the opening is a slow Adagio, pizzicato on double basses, and almost a string symphony over that [0:00-0:45], i really love the opening, this movement is rather a start / stop / start thing at first, love the oboe playing the main tune in a melancholy way [1:20-1:40], the brass of course have have their loud say [5:36-6:22], fanfares over frantic strings, it's a thrilling moment, and again a little while later they have a regal / noble triple fanfare [7:04-8:15], Bruckner really likes to blast your ears off!, there's a thrilling large section just after the middle, where the strings start up a complex fugue of sorts [12:33+], all zigzag rhythms, increasingly punctuated by brass fanfares [13:13+], it goes on for ages, this must be my favourite section of this movement, Bruckner keeps it going on and on [-15:08], love it when the brass fanfares come back in [17:55-18:45], it's good to hear the different brass instruments, awash with those driving strings in the background, the final threads are majestic, it's a brass festival, the brass seems to keep outdoing itself [21:19+ / 21:56+ / 22:56+], working its way up the levels to something really climatic, love the way the timpani has a loud roll right at the end [23:27-23:37], what a thrilling piece of music, sadly Bruckner never heard this Symphony himself in his lifetime!, i hope he's up there listening to it all now.
Here's Celibidache conducting the fourth movement on YouTube.
