Solti: Bruckner Symphonies (10 CD box set, APE)

Composer: Anton Bruckner
Orchestra: Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Sir Georg Solti
Audio CD
Number of Discs: 10
Format: APE (image+cue)
Label: Decca
Size: 2.36 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes

# Symphony No. 0, in D minor (“Die Nullte”), WAB 100
Composed by Anton Bruckner
Performed by Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Georg Solti

# Symphony No. 1 in C minor (“The Saucy Maid”), WAB 101 (various versions)
Composed by Anton Bruckner
Performed by Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Georg Solti

# Symphony No. 2 in C minor (“Symphony of Pauses”), WAB 102 (various versions) Ed. Nowak
Composed by Anton Bruckner
Performed by Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Georg Solti

# Symphony No. 5 in B flat (“Tragic”; “Church of Faith”; “Pizzicato”), WAB 105 (various versions)
Composed by Anton Bruckner
Performed by Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Georg Solti

# Symphony No. 3 in D minor (“Wagner”), WAB 103 (various versions)
Composed by Anton Bruckner
Performed by Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Georg Solti

# Symphony No. 4 in E flat (“Romantic”), WAB 104 (various versions) Ed. Nowak
Composed by Anton Bruckner
Performed by Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Georg Solti

# Symphony No. 6 in A major (“Philosophic”), WAB 106 (various versions)
Composed by Anton Bruckner
Performed by Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Georg Solti

# Symphony No. 7 in E major (“Lyric”), WAB 107
Composed by Anton Bruckner
Performed by Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Georg Solti

# Symphony No. 8 in C minor (“Apocalyptic”; “The German Michel”), WAB 108 (various versions)
Composed by Anton Bruckner
Performed by Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Georg Solti

# Symphony No. 9 in D minor (“Unfinished”), WAB 109 (various versions)
Composed by Anton Bruckner
Performed by Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Georg Solti

Solti’s Sine Qua Non of Brucker Ninths

Let me state very succinctly and unequivocally that there is no other Bruckner 9th on earth I can listen to with such rapt, undiminished joy as Solti’s.

The overpowering (almost terrifying) coda of the first movement hits the listener like some inexorable, demonic force of Nature, thanks exclusively to Solti’s stealth-like tempo and slow-mounting crescendo, where the CSO’s thundering brass suddenly takes on a life and will of its own. Once you experience (and survive) the impact of this near-cosmic cataclysm — sorry, I tend to wax hyperbolical with this particular work — no other recording will ever satisfy. (Psst! — and just wait until God Himself throws open the Celestial Gates (TWICE!) in the third movement.)

Although Solti is by no means my favorite Bruckner conductor — consider Knappertsbusch’s underrated, yet unparalleled, SCHALK VERSION! for the Fifth; Haitink and the Concertgebouw for the Third; Anton Nanut and the Ljubljana for the Eighth; Erich Leinsdorf and the Boston Symphony (LP only) for the Fourth; Sawallisch and the Bavarian State Orchestra for the Sixth — I nonetheless award 5 generous stars to this boxed edition, only because life, for this listener, would lose all sense and meaning without Solti’s brilliant, never-to-be-equalled interpretation of the heaven-inspired Bruckner Ninth.

By the way, his beguiling (read absolutely perfect!) phrasing of the long melody line at the opening of the Seventh is quite frankly to die for. Though why he chose such a comparatively “sluggish” tempo for the energetic Scherzo is beyond my comprehension.