Label: Exton
Format: SACD hybrid
Barcode: 4526977050733
Catalog number: EXCL 73
Releasedate: 03-08-12
Format: SACD hybrid
Barcode: 4526977050733
Releasedate: 03-08-12
This is the recording of ambitious performance by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and conductor Sakari Oramo, through the culmination of their successful relationship, featuring the 3rd version of Bruckner's third symphony. The first performance of this 3rd version had a triumphant success and this was the result of the composer's unrelenting efforts to improve it. The interpretation by Mr.Oramo and RSPO full of profound insight into the work creates splendid transparency and clear direction in rich sound of Bruckner's world of music.
- Conductor Sakari Oramo is Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
- He is also Chief Conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Co-Founder and Principal Conductor of West Coast Kokkola Opera
- From 1998-2008 he was Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
- Following his debut with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 2011, he has recently been appointed its Chief Conductor Designate, beginning at the 2013 BBC Proms
- An accomplished violinist, Oramo was originally concertmaster of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
- Oramo has conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony on various occasions
- and collaborates regularly with the Staatskapelle Dresden and Chamber Orchestra of Europe
- In 2011 Oramo made a successful debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, followed immediately by his high profile debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra after stepping in at short notice
- In 2013, Oramo will make his debut with the Wiener Philharmoniker
- A prolific recording artist, Oramo has a number of highly-acclaimed recordings to his credit on Ondine, Warner Classics and Hyperion labels Sony Classics, BIS
- The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (RSPO) celebrates its 110th anniversary in 2012
- It was with Antal Dorati that the RSPO began to make its more permanent mark on the international scene (1966-1974)
- Together they embarked on the ensemble’s first tour of the USA in 1968 and performed in East Europe (Prague, East Berlin, Dresden and Leipzig) in 1969
Sakari Oramo is Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and this is their in-depth interpretation of Bruckner's Third Symphony (the third version).
The unique synthesis which produced Bruckner’s mature symphonic style, combining the Viennese Classical tradition of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, the Renaissance and Baroque counterpoint which he studied so assiduously, and the vast harmonic spans and dramatic gestures of Wagner’s operas, is clearly evident in the third of his nine (numbered) symphonies. This was composed in 1872 and ’73, during the composer’s early years in Vienna as a professor at the Conservatoire. While it was still in progress, Bruckner showed the score to his idol Wagner at Bayreuth, and obtained permission to dedicate it to him. However, the endorsement of the progressive Wagner was no passport to success in conservative Vienna. The work’s first performance in December 1877, given by the Vienna Philharmonic under the composer (an inexperienced conductor), was a disaster: many of the audience left the hall during the performance, and at the end the orchestral players walked off, leaving the hapless Bruckner alone on the platform.
At this point, the Symphony had been undergoing a drastic revision, including the removal of several literal quotations from Wagner. In 1878 it was published in its revised form, in full score and in a piano duet arrangement by the seventeen-year-old Gustav Mahler and his fellow-student Rudolf Krzyzanowski. A decade later, in 1888 and ’89, against Mahler’s advice, Bruckner made another thorough revision of the score for republication, with the assistance of his pupils Franz and Joseph Schalk. The edition by Leopold Nowak used for the present recording represents this version as it was prepared for the engraver, without some suspect accretions attributed to the Schalk brothers which found their way into the publication of 1890. Compared with the previous versions, this final recension includes substantial cuts in the second movement, and further cuts, as well as one new, shorter transition, in the finale. The Symphony was first performed in its ultimate version by the Vienna Philharmonic under the great Hans Richter in December 1890, and this time was a triumphant success – perhaps reflecting how much Bruckner had improved the work, though that is still the subject of some critical dispute, but also indicating how his stock had risen with the critics, the public and even the players over the previous thirteen years. (from the CD linernotes by Anthony Burton © 2012)
The unique synthesis which produced Bruckner’s mature symphonic style, combining the Viennese Classical tradition of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, the Renaissance and Baroque counterpoint which he studied so assiduously, and the vast harmonic spans and dramatic gestures of Wagner’s operas, is clearly evident in the third of his nine (numbered) symphonies. This was composed in 1872 and ’73, during the composer’s early years in Vienna as a professor at the Conservatoire. While it was still in progress, Bruckner showed the score to his idol Wagner at Bayreuth, and obtained permission to dedicate it to him. However, the endorsement of the progressive Wagner was no passport to success in conservative Vienna. The work’s first performance in December 1877, given by the Vienna Philharmonic under the composer (an inexperienced conductor), was a disaster: many of the audience left the hall during the performance, and at the end the orchestral players walked off, leaving the hapless Bruckner alone on the platform.
At this point, the Symphony had been undergoing a drastic revision, including the removal of several literal quotations from Wagner. In 1878 it was published in its revised form, in full score and in a piano duet arrangement by the seventeen-year-old Gustav Mahler and his fellow-student Rudolf Krzyzanowski. A decade later, in 1888 and ’89, against Mahler’s advice, Bruckner made another thorough revision of the score for republication, with the assistance of his pupils Franz and Joseph Schalk. The edition by Leopold Nowak used for the present recording represents this version as it was prepared for the engraver, without some suspect accretions attributed to the Schalk brothers which found their way into the publication of 1890. Compared with the previous versions, this final recension includes substantial cuts in the second movement, and further cuts, as well as one new, shorter transition, in the finale. The Symphony was first performed in its ultimate version by the Vienna Philharmonic under the great Hans Richter in December 1890, and this time was a triumphant success – perhaps reflecting how much Bruckner had improved the work, though that is still the subject of some critical dispute, but also indicating how his stock had risen with the critics, the public and even the players over the previous thirteen years. (from the CD linernotes by Anthony Burton © 2012)