Aged 84, Jochum was at the height of his powers when he conducted this magnificent ‘live’ performance: it was his last appearance with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, and he fulfilled only one more concert engagement before his death. Tahra are offering this two-disc set (in a slimline case) for the price of a single CD and it is a valuable release, which eclipses Jochum’s previous recordings of the work and is fully competitive with the best of other conductors’ recordings of this symphony.

The year before Robert Simpson died, I asked him which conductor he had been referring to when, in his book, The Essence of Bruckner (page 121 of the 1977 second edition) he complained about a recording of this symphony which "halved the tempo" for the work’s apotheosis ("Poor Bruckner - he has suffered as much from his friends as from his enemies", wrote Dr Simpson). The conductor in question was Jochum, but he is not alone in his decision to change gear near the conclusion of the finale: Haitink does so at the same point (bar 564) in his 1988 recording with the Vienna Philharmonic but not in his very different 1971 account with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Such a decision remains questionable when Karajan’s 1976 version on DG with the Berlin Philharmonic demonstrates how much more impressive the final pages are when the chorale is drawn inexorably into the tempo already established. It is indicative of the jolt which the listener receives at this point in Jochum’s previous recordings that Simpson should have recollected that the tempo was halved, as the change is actually much less than this, yet when the tempo slows in the Tahra release (at 22’24"), the speed alteration causes no concern whatsoever, because it arrives as the culmination of a performance which the listener senses to have been more controlled throughout and therefore more compelling than Jochum’s previous recordings of the work. His overall view of the Fifth Symphony did not change radically over the years, but when comparing his recordings of it, it is inevitable that one notices modifications of small details in his interpretation, the cumulative effect of which makes the 1986 performance even more satisfying than its predecessors, despite the absence of any large-scale innovations.

Jochum’s association with the Fifth Symphony spanned many decades. Bruckner’s original score (as distinct from the appalling 1893 edition, published in 1896, a recording of which I have reviewed on this web-site this month) remained unperformed until 1935, and it was this bona fide edition which was used for the first recording of the work, made two years later in Dresden by Karl Böhm. It was Böhm.’s appointment in Dresden which enabled Jochum to take over Böhm.’s post in Hamburg in 1934 (where relatively-liberal local political conditions allowed Jochum to hold this official post despite his refusal to join the Nazi party) and it was with the Hamburg Philharmonic that Jochum made his first recording of the symphony in 1938 for Telefunken, which Tahra intend to reissue on CD.

In their booklet notes for the 1986 recording with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Tahra pay generous tribute to Jochum’s 1964 version with the same orchestra, edited from two ‘live’ performances; this was issued originally by Philips and is now available on the Belart label, but even at budget price it can receive only a lukewarm recommendation, as it was not recorded at the Concertgebouw itself but in Ottobeuren Abbey, where the engineers balanced the strings too closely, resulting in claustrophobic sound quality, despite the pleasant resonance supplied by the venue’s acoustics. An earlier 1958 DG recording with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra presents a similar interpretation in superior sound, but the 1980 recording for EMI with the Staatskapelle Dresden has still greater impact, although the difference in engineering is somewhat less than one might expect considering that 32 years separate the two, and there is a blatant change of sound level at bar 484 in the finale. I can summon up even less enthusiasm for the 1980 recording than for the 1964 version, not so much because of occasional insecurity from the strings (there is an awkward moment as early as bar 61 of the opening movement, where some of the second violins are still holding the F flat from the previous bar instead of moving to E flat) but rather because the brass section sounds raucous: it is true that in Karajan’s DG version the Berlin Philharmonic’s splendid brass players are even more dominant, but they are always well balanced internally, whereas the Dresden players are not. The bass trombonist is the main culprit: he does not blend with his colleagues, being unduly prominent throughout, so much so that at the end, his contribution makes the final apotheosis, one of the supreme passages in all music, sound banal and coarse.

Jochum’s greater subtlety intensifies the impact of the 1986 performance: he is prepared to allow each awesome silence - not only of the introduction but elsewhere too - a duration of either its full notated length or something very close to it (Karajan’s DG version is let down by his impatience in the introduction, cutting short the silences); the extra crescendo on timpani with which he leads to the opening movement’s initial climax at bar 49 (3’15") achieves more than merely a local effect, in that this mighty end to the introduction leaves the listener expectant as the main Allegro is launched. As in his previous recordings of the work, Jochum still lowers the double basses an octave in bar 32 of the second movement (2’57"), which the composer himself might well have done had the extended low range of the instrument been available to him in the 1870s; Jochum does likewise at bar 157 in the first movement (7’58"). Whereas in the third movement he used to double the oboe and clarinet parts at bar 311 by the horns (4’46", repeated at 12’54"), here he reverts to Bruckner’s original scoring. In general, Bruckner’s text is observed faithfully and when one hears an unexpected balance, such as at bar 225 in the scherzo (3’25", repeated at 11’23"), where the second violins are encouraged to play out, there is always genuine musical insight behind it, not just a desire to make a novel effect. The orchestral playing is excellent, certainly preferable to the ‘live’ performances of Symphonies Nos.4, 6, 7 & 8 given by Jochum and this orchestra between 1970 and 1984, and previously released by Tahra: listen to the passage marked etwas mehr langsam at bar 83 in the finale (3’47") to hear how sonorous the orchestral playing is.

Tahra’s booklet states that this recording is of a single concert on 4 December 1986, but the back inlay of the CD suggests that this release may derive not only from that concert, but from the evening before too. Whatever the case, there are very few mistakes in the playing: when the timpanist forgets to enter at bar 525 in the finale (21’21") it is one of the few reminders which one receives that the orchestra is playing without the safety net of studio conditions. The only disturbing blunder is at bar 82 in the slow movement (7’49"), where Jochum’s extremely-slow tempo momentarily confuses the first clarinettist, who enters at too fast a speed (it is a curious coincidence that an identical problem occurs in the same bar at 7’29" on Tahra’s issue of a 1944 ‘live’ performance of this symphony conducted by Georg-Ludwig Jochum, Eugen’s younger brother, an experienced Brucknerian himself). This riveting account of the slow movement takes nearly 21 minutes and reaches a threatening climax at bar 194, making the hushed ppp coda from bar 203 onwards more meaningful.

The acoustics of Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw are captured well by the engineers: there is a tangible sense of being present in the hall, with a bloom to the sound in the quieter moments and with an impressive feeling of openness in the louder passages. This is not a digital recording, so occasionally one hears a very faint pre-echo due to magnetic ‘print through’ on the open-reel tapes (such as before bar 137 in the finale at 6’17"), a regular technical problem with analogue recordings of this work, because of the many instances in the score of fortissimo chords which follow on from complete silence. Tape hiss is minimal and the audience is attentive, with only a few coughs.

The booklet reprints detailed comments by Jochum about performing the symphony; during these remarks, which appeared originally in the booklet accompanying the LP issue of his DG recording, Jochum explains how he arranges for extra brass players to help out the main brass instrumentalists of the orchestra near the end of the finale, because he is aware that by this point in the score the latter may be too tired to sustain the fff climax. However, there is an irony here: in a BBC reissue of Horenstein’s 1970 performance one can hear someone in the audience shout out "encore!" at 24’26" during the concluding applause and perhaps something similar happened in Jochum’s last Amsterdam concert, because Tahra’s notes tell us that he repeated the entire 25-minute finale for the audience, although this ‘encore’ is not included on the CD; so much for Jochum’s concern not to overwork his brass players!

It would be simplistic to claim that any one single recording of this towering masterpiece can be considered superior to all others, but I have no doubt that Jochum’s 1986 version is amongst the most rewarding available. Despite the strong claims of several other brisker performances, the three most compelling versions for me are the three most spacious ones, none of which fit onto a single disc: the apocalyptic 1976 Karajan DG version with the Berlin Philharmonic (for which his mono 1954 ‘live’ performance with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra on the Orfeo label is no real competition), which should surely win over even the many listeners who are prejudiced against this conductor; Sergiu Celibidache’s uncompromising and austere account with the Munich Philharmonic, deriving from two ‘live’ concerts in 1993, which has a unique visionary quality; and Jochum’s glorious 1986 performance, less interventionist than many of his earlier recordings of Bruckner’s works in general, the music being allowed to flow more naturally here. I would not wish my own collection to be without any of these contrasting recordings: few readers will want to buy all three, but those who choose the 1986 Jochum concert will not be disappointed by the excitement and the generous expressivity of the music-making on offer here.

Reviewer

Raymond Clarke

Performance

Recording