Bruckner's 4th in a beautiful, haunting in-house 1993 recording

If you've already heard some performances of Bruckner 4th symphonies,

 please consider pretending you never did. Then press play.

Anton Bruckner

Symphony No. 4 in E-flat "Romantic"

Munchner Philharmoniker

Sergiu Celibidache, conductor

Live in-house recording from Symphony Hall, Osaka, Japan 
20 April 1993, shared by Ray (who also made up the art!)

I Allegro molto moderato (Bewegt, nicht zu schnell) 

II Andante, quasi allegretto

III Scherzo: Bewegt

IV Finale: Bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell 

Ever since I came across this recording, I've been haunted by it. Maybe it's an early Halloween celebration as such. What I mean is it keeps reminding me of some detail or weighting of textures that I want to hear again, then again a week later. It helped to rediscover an already favorite symphony.What I mean in the comment about pretending not have ever known a Bruckner 4th before listening to this one, is to incorporate a bit of Zen philosophy, known to be dear to Maestro Celibidache:

"..Not knowing immediately opens into endless possibilities. When you know, you’re very limited. As Suzuki Roshi says, the beginner’s mind has countless possibilities. The mind of the expert is very small. It shows an unwillingness to really hear anything..."

Ray boils it down:

"...Even for Celibidache, the tempo for the coda of the Finale is glacial 
but somehow it becomes almost hypnotic.  To my ears it works but you 
really must clear your mind of every other performance of the Bruckner 
Four you have ever heard and take this one on its own terms. 

But shouldn't you really do that with any performance? "

Right on.

Schoenberg: Pelleas and Melisande, with Alan Gilbert's talk. New York Phil, live Sept 25, 2009

A great performance, with preconcert walkthough of 

Arnold Schoenberg's Opus 5.

"My music is not modern, it is merely badly played."- A. Schoenberg

Arnold Schoenberg

Opus 5, Pelleas Und Melisande

Johannes Brahms

Opus 77, violin concerto

Alan Gilbert, conductor

New York Philharmonic

Frank Peter Zimmermann, soloist (Brahms)

Avery Fisher Hall, NYC

September 25, 2009

Wondrously placed stereo In-house recording

(coughing humans fall silent quickly enough)

This is my rapproachement with Schoenberg, in the recognition that he always sounds detached to me, somewhat alien. Some performances bring him in though, close, a stark wee-hours stare into the bathroom mirror, if you will. Last time I felt Schoenberg was with the Arditti Quartet's take on the second and third string quartets, and before that his Starry Night (an easy entryway to this composer).

The real reason, besides the performance and the front row acoustic feel, is the inclusion of one of first few talks that Alan Gilbert is giving during the performances- immediately before, not an hour before curtain. You may know that he is the young new mainstay for the New York Philharmonic, and where its previous head honcho, "...Lorin Maazel had no interest in using the Philharmonic music director’s platform as a teaching tool. Mr. Gilbert is good at it...", as The New York Times opined.

It's a great talk and made me feel good to hear an involved maestro and audience here. So I had to share.

the whole NY Times article about this performance is here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/26/arts/music/26phil.html?_r=1

also included is the rest of the program that morning, the Brahms violin concerto. Frank Peter Zimmermann played Joseph Joachim's cadenza.

**Mil gracias to well, you know who you are, for this!**

Enjoy, 

You will not sell this at all anyway anywhat anyhow, but spread it far, wide and go to a (non-free) concert soon!