LSO, Rattle, Barbican review - a glimpse into Bruckner’s workshop
A compelling case made for each version of the 'Romantic' Symphony
For most Bruckner fans, the multiple editions and revisions of his symphonies are a problem. But Simon Rattle sees it differently; for him every edition offers more music to explore. That was the thinking behind this programme, presenting the Fourth Symphony in one and a half versions, a “discarded” scherzo and finale in the first half, and a complete version in the second.
Bernard Haitink: The Enigmatic Maestro, BBC Two review - saying goodbye with Bruckner
Candour and warmth light up a thoroughly musical portrait
Before his retirement last summer at the age of 90, Bernard Haitink worked magic on the podium, no one is in any doubt about that. Lining up one friend and musician after another to admit they don’t know how he does it hardly seems the most promising basis for a feature-length documentary. Yet John Bridcut’s film also works, rather like one of Haitink’s performances, by placing trust in his material and moulding its form with a nudge here, a pause there. The result, no less than his much admired portrait of Janet Baker, is worthy of its subject, and praise doesn’t come higher than that.
Classical Vinyl Weekly: Bruckner, Smetana
Two analogue box sets: a great conductor's last thoughts on an Austrian romantic and a set of Czech tone poems.
Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 Berliner Philharmoniker/Bernard Haitink (Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings)
Classical CDs Weekly: Bruckner, Elgar, Prokofiev
Stellar Antipodeans, English late romanticism and Soviet ballet music
Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 Australian World Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle (ABC Classics)
Classical CDs Weekly: Bruckner, Holst, Piazzolla
Austrian symphonic gravitas, English exotica and tangos from Ireland
Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra/Manfred Honeck (Reference Recordings)
Anderszewski, CBSO, Wellber, Symphony Hall Birmingham review - grandeur in restraint
Mozartian Bartók and Bruckner with itchy feet, as Omer Meir Wellber saves the day
No orchestra wants its conductor to cancel in the week of a concert.
Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Bruckner, Notice Recordings
Definitive box sets of sonatas and symphonies, plus striking new music from a US independent label
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas 1-32 Igor Levit (Sony)
Prom 60: Ax, Vienna Philharmonic, Haitink review - moving mountains at 90
Time becomes perfectly-managed space in a great conductor's official UK finale
His movements are minimal (perhaps they always were). A more intense flick of the baton, a sudden wider sweep of the expressive left hand, can help quicken a tempo, draw extra firepower from the players, but Bernard Haitink's conducting is still the most unforced and, well, musicianly, in the world.
LSO, Guildhall School, Rattle, Barbican review - irresistible momentum
Patience pays off in sublime Bruckner
The Barbican Hall hardly boasts the numinous acoustic of Gloucester Cathedral for which Vaughan Williams composed his Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, but Sir Simon Rattle has long known how to build space into the architecture of what he conducts.