Complete Symphonies

• Gustav Mahler, The Complete Symphonies / LPO, Tennstedt
• 24 Preludes and Fugues Op. 87
• Symphonies 1-7/Kullervo/Tone Poems
• French Suites (Ltd.Ed)
• The Piano Sonatas

After listening and then reading about Maestro Jochum's growing up with this music and holding it to himself as he would the Bible shows his mastery of these works. My old criteria was to listen to a performance of the 9th as compared to Bruno Walter's 60's performance done for Columbia/Sony. Jochum blows him away and the Staatskapelle of Dresden is marvelous. Maybe not as sumptious as the BPO or PHO, but the brass!!! Oh, the brass! What wonderful a sound. Is it the cathedral or the section itself? Such power and such a beautiful, dark even mysterious sound. I loved it.

If there was a tiny weak spot it had to be the sixth. Maybe I just need to listen to it more. The construction of it seemed to be a little weak. As I say, it might be just me and I am willing to listen to it until it becomes more familiar to me. I had thought the fifth to be the 'quirky' one before, but Maestro Jochum brings about a different approach to the themes and juxtaposes them either slow or faster, softer or louder or much more expressive than the other recordings I have. The result is the most awesome and powerful performance of the lot.To me, the fifth was his first great symphony and Jochum brings it forth as no other. The seventh, eighth and ninth are also so marvelous to almost be beyond describing.

I HAVE JUST ADDED THIS IN!! WHAT PLANET WAS I ON WHEN I LISTENED TO THE 6TH SYMPHONY THE FIRST TIME!!? How magnificent!! This could be the hidden gem in the whole lot! Bruckner was a monumental mover of blocks of music. That is the only way I can state this. The magnificent way he uses descending scales against ascending scales, and they seem to move upward together. I guess what threw me, the first time, was the melodic construction. The fifth was a curiosity until I heard the awesome, magnificent recording on this set. But, hearing the 6th for the third time now I think this is Bruckner's homage to Wagner. I thought I heard praises to the 'Ring' here and the 'Liebestod' in the adagio. Very beautiful music in this symphony. The finale is the most ecstatic expression, in my mind, of any of the symphonies, yet since I have received this set, these symphonies are the only music I listen to. His music is so holy, to me. A man's expression of ultimate love of the Creator (or whatever one calls him/her/energy/spirit-all of the above) and his effort to make universal music grasped by all lovers of deep, spiritual expression in music. His music is, truly, like no other composers' and it is worth the listening and re-listening to ingrain the inner movement it creates.

One of the reviewers says that if you have heard one Bruckner Symphony you have heard them all. That may be true and what we may be hearing is the composer's inexorable movement toward perfection and a cyclic expression of it. I seem to have heard threads of earlier symphonies in the later compositions, and it seemed to me to be a complete whole expression of them all. I hope that makes sense. We know that he was constantly revising his work and it works because his music, as idiosyncratic as it is, develops into a surprisingly coherent whole.

Bruckner's music is like no other's. I think that Sibelius may be the only one to approach the monolithic style of him. I read, one time, Bruckner's music being compared to other composers and the comment was that other's were composed to bring joy and whatever. Bruckner's was to move mountains and this set proves it.

I recommend this set the highest of any other that I have on this venue before. An absolute must for any library. Play it when you want to feel close to God or whoever you believe or worship because it will move your heart and soul.

Maestro Jochum, thank you for moving this humble man to his very heart and soul

How does Jochum/Dresden's complete set stand up to its rivals? In my view, it's up against a weak field - its strongest competition comes from Jochum himself on DG. Both of Barenboim's (Chicago and Berlin) are very uneven. Solti is as subtle as a plumber's wrench. Haitink is too careful and lightweight. Wand is cool and not that well recorded. Tintner is heavy-handed, and his orchestras are provincial. Skrowaczewski is prosaic and has a second rate ensemble. Karajan has many admirers - but I am not among them: his interpretations, to me, sound sterile and uninvolving.

Jochum on EMI has, with Dresden, one of the world's greatest orchestras. His earlier set uses the Berlin Philharmonic in Symphonies 1,4 and 7-9 - the balance is with his own Bavarian Radio Symphony, which Jochum founded in 1949.

On the basis of sound alone, the average listener is likely to prefer the Dresden, making it perhaps the best complete set for a newcomer to Bruckner's music - it is well-played, in modern sonics, and none of the performances is less than competent.

However, the Berlin Philharmonic is outstanding and the Bavarian Radio plays well. I would give DG the prize in Symphonies 1, 2, 4 and 6, while Dresden/EMI is very slightly preferable in 5, 8 and 9. For 3 and 7, it's a toss-up, although I lean towards DG in the Third.

Jochum's DG performance of #1 is one of the two or three finest Firsts ever recorded: I think it's Jochum's finest traversal of ANY Bruckner Symphony. In #2, everything goes smoothly until the last movement, which I find a bit aggressive in both versions. The DG #3 remains one of the finest stereo versions. I prefer Jochum's mono 1955 4th with the Bavarian Radio (on American Decca LP's) to either of those in the complete sets: it simply sounds fresher, more rustic, and a little closer to the source.

With Symphonies 5-9, the competition from other performances is overwhelming. Jochum's is a highly polished Bruckner - others convey more of the rural Austrian composer's earthy side. Jochum has always had a predilection for arbitrary tempo shifts: I feel all his recordings of the 5th are undone by them. To my ears, Jochum is outshone in the 8th and the 9th by conductors as varied as Furtwangler, Schuricht, Horenstein, and Abendroth.

Jochum's is not the last word in Bruckner - but he is a very fine spokesman. Anyone wanting to explore Bruckner's symphonic world could hardly do better than either of these complete Jochum sets. The EMI has excellent performances in modern recorded sound; the DG has a few superior readings, but in sound that is a bit dated. Either set offers many hours of beautiful music making.

I fall into the love category. Bruckner's symphonies are marvelous romantic edifices. At his best, Bruckner can storm heaven and plumb the depths of the psyche in equal measure. They are primarily spiritual testimonies, monuments to Bruckner's rather simple faith. All of them are worth a listen, and some of them are true masterpieces (4th, 7th, 8th, and 9th and maybe the 6th as well.)

I judge my Bruckner symphony cycles by the readings I hear of the 7th and 8th. The 7th is a marvel of symphonic writing. It's first theme soars out of the orchestra like the Grail theme of Parsifal, but with more power in my opinion. Each iteration of the theme should gather in intensity until the last one leaves you breathless. I have only heard this done supremely twice, once in a recording of a Furtwangler radio broadcast, and once in this reading by Jochum. Both conductors seem to be preternaturally in tune with Bruckner's aestetic and listening to the 7th is a spiritual experience.

The 8th comes from the opposite spiritual realm. The Eighth is initially a tragic symphony. The first movement builds to a grindingly tragic conclusion and the tension developed isn't resolved until the final bars of the piece. It is an overwhelming work. Jochum's is by far the best reading of this piece I've ever heard, even trumping the Furtwangler readings I know.

Jochum is supreme in all of this repertoire. He made his reputation as a Bruckner specialist, and you can hear his deep love of the composer in every measure. Jochum brings the same level of committment to the "lesser" symphonies like the 2nd and 3rd. Under his hand, I find that I like these works much better than I thought I did. I turn to them more than I did before buying this set, though I still spend most of the time with the great works.

If you are interested in the complete Bruckner symphonies this is the set to have. It beats the competition hands down. If you just want a sampling of Bruckner, I would still highly recommend Jochum's accounts. No other conductor, even Gunther Wand who has made such a splash in Bruckner circles, can touch Jochum in his sensitivity and ability to keep a forward line through this challenging repertoire.

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