Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)
Symphony No. 3 in D minor (Original 1873 version, ed. Nowak)
ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra/Markus Poschner
rec. 2022, Radio Kulturhaus, Vienna
CAPRICCIO C8086 [57]
This Complete Bruckner Edition proceeds apace, and while I had distinct reservations about Poschner’s Sixth Symphony (review), his Fourth (review) and the Eighth (review) have been especially successful, so I had reasonably high expectations of this new Third.
I first listened to this recording in the company of a “Learned Brucknerian Friend” and within a few seconds our jaws dropped and we stared aghast; I found myself looking to check if I had somehow switched the playback speed. The absurdly swift tempo of the opening amounts to wilful vandalism. Furthermore, the sound is scratchy, muffled, distant and removed – the horns have no presence. That combination of poor interpretation and engineering makes a mockery of the magic, might and mystery of the music and if I had heard it delivered thus at a concert, I would have been tempted to walk out.
The Adagio is not so farcical but at 16 minutes it is again very fast – indeed, one of the fastest - if not quite as extreme as the first movement. Once again, the steely, abrasive edge on the strings does the music no favours and the rushed tempo robs it of gravitas; it is lightweight, perfunctory and careless of phrasing – it sounds as though the guiding principle is one of just getting the notes out.
The Scherzo is more conventional but the shallow sound is yet again deleterious. Poschner ploughs through the movement such that the tempo of the Trio is barely differentiated from the outer sections.
The finale reverts to a panicky, rushed, breathless mode with little sense of purpose; it trivialises the music and the Ländler trips by like a child’s skipping song. In the concluding three minutes, the pauses are excessive and baffling; the silences carry no sense of tension and the gallop to the end is just a raucous blare.
I am at a loss to explain what possessed an obviously highly expert and talented conductor to experiment quite so recklessly beyond the desire to achieve a novelty of impact at all costs. The results are to my ears simply dire and if MWI hosted such a category, this recording would head my nominations for “Lemon of the Year” and the worst recording of a Bruckner symphony I have ever heard.
Ralph Moore
This review commissioned by, and reproduced here by kind permission of, The Bruckner Journal.
Published: October 21, 2022
