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 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + stanislaw skrowaczewski BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 9 [ Reference Recordings ] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + BY PAUL FESTA It must have sucked to be a composer in Vienna at the same time as Brahms and sound like Wagner. You got all the abuse of the anti-Wagner mob and none of the fun of actually being Wagner. Such was the fate of Anton Bruckner, who, though he only sounded a little bit like Wagner, spent his life critically and popularly maligned by Brahmsian bullies, and consequently lonely, depressed, blocked and insecure. But luckily for us he wrote some magnificent symphonies. Like many a classical composer, Bruckner wrote a ninth symphony and promptly died. And the symphony that finished off Bruckner, Bruckner left unfinished. The composer's fans and detractors alike claim to be pleased with the status of the three-movement symphony, the former likening it to Schubert's flawless symphonic fragment and the latter to "Paradise Lost," which, as Johnson pointed out, nobody ever wished one iamb longer. The Ninth clocks in at just under an hour. And what an hour! Bruckner biographers and critics make a big case for the composer as a mystic, a devout Christian religious artist, but I don't think this should be held against him. This music uses religion the way a Puritan preacher does: to scare the pants off you. At the very least, Bruckner's is an Old Testament God, full of fire and brimstone and willing to use it along with a brass section armed with Wagner tubas. Faced with the Ninth Symphony, we are but listeners in the hands of an angry composer. Bruckner has no greater champion than Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, whose direction of the Minnesota Orchestra on this disc brings out a raw energy from the ensemble, which is usually kept on a tighter leash. And audiophiles will appreciate the usual Reference Recording wizardry that makes you feel like you're sitting in the orchestra, or perhaps suspended by your toenails above it. This combination of orchestral guts and engineering glory is most evident in the symphony's central movement, a spine-tingling danse macabre whose driving violence, relentless repetition and intermittent quixotic passages demonstrate the full range of what this orchestra, this composer and your speakers are capable of achieving. Meanwhile, I think Bruckner is overdue for another comeback (he, along with Mahler, became very popular in the 1960s). I suppose mystical Christians might pick this disc up, but in truth Bruckner sounds like he spent more time reading Gothic novels than he did praying in Gothic cathedrals. I wonder what all those powder-faced, black-clad and pierced urban Goths are listening to these days. They should be listening to this.
Paul Festa is a regular contributor to Salon. |
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