Carlo Maria Giulini, Wiener Symphoniker & Chicago SO - Bruckner: Symphonies 2 & 9 (1975 & 1977) SACD ISO + DSD64 + FLAC

In 1974, Carlo Maria Giulini and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra recorded Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 2 in C minor for EMI, an unusual selection for the time but one the conductor had chosen among a number of core works he wished to interpret with this orchestra. The Bruckner's Ninth dated from 1976, with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, is among the finest ever recorded. The CSO's brass players were born to play Bruckner, and Giulini combines toughness with an Italianate singing quality to make the third movement particularly memorable and elegiac.

The Symphony No. 2 is one of Bruckner's formative works and doesn't yet reveal his mature personality, but Giulini treats it as a major statement, infusing it with energy and passion and inspiring the musicians to play with full commitment. The pacing of the first two movements is on the slow side, but the tempos let Giulini treat the themes with a long-breathed lyricism reminiscent of Schubert. The tempos of the Scherzo and the Finale are moderately fast, having sufficient speed to move the music forward, but they seem all of a piece with the rest of the symphony, particularly in their moments of gentle songfulness. This is one of the best engineered Bruckner recordings of the time, so the recording is focused and clear, and the details of the inner parts are easily heard.

When Giulini first recorded Bruckner's Ninth Symphony for EMI with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra I thought the reading grand and often impassioned but rather diffuse; less effective, certainly, than the 1975 DG recording, now on CD, in which Karajan sets the symphony before us with all the art of a painter who has truly mastered the perspective and anatomy of his subject. The new Giulini is gaunter, grander, and even slower. And yet it is more of a piece, more tellingly played by the Vienna Philharmonic who surpass the Chicago orchestra in almost every department: weightier brass, more pungent woodwinds, and strings that don't attempt to mimic sweetness. Giulini has not so much changed the reading as transformed it. Despite the slowness—three minutes added to the first movement and again to the Adagio, making them the slowest on record at getting on for 30 minutes a piece—there is very much the sense of his now being the master of his own brief.

Tracklist

DISC ONE:
01. Bruckner: Symphony No. 2 in C minor, WAB 102 (Nowak Edition) - I. Moderato
02. Bruckner: Symphony No. 2 in C minor, WAB 102 (Nowak Edition) - II. Andante
03. Bruckner: Symphony No. 2 in C minor, WAB 102 (Nowak Edition) - III. Massig schnell
04. Bruckner: Symphony No. 2 in C minor, WAB 102 (Nowak Edition) - IV. Mehr schnell

DISC TWO:
01. Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, WAB 109 - I. Feierlich, misterioso
02. Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, WAB 109 - II. Scherzo (Bewegt, lebhaft) & Trio (Schnell)
03. Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, WAB 109 - III. Adagio (Langsam, feierlich)

Personnel
Carlo Maria Giulini - Conductor
Vienna Symphony Orchestra (Disc 1)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Disc 2)

Produced by Christopher Bishop. Balance Engineer: Christopher Parker.
Symphony No.2 > Recorded on December 8-10, 1974 at Musikvereinssaal, Wien, Austria.
Symphony No.9 > Recorded on December 102, 1976 at Medinah Temple, Chicago, IL.
Tower Records Japan # TDSA-70~71


Thanks to KolyaFokhin!
Uncompressed SACD ISO size > 2,34 + 2,52 GB
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