Wilhelm Furtwängler's recordings of Anton Bruckner's symphonies aren't everyone's first choice. There are those who legitimately prefer the recordings of Karl Böhm, Eugen Jochum, Otto Klemperer, Hans Knappertsbusch, or even Herbert von Karajan. But for many Bruckner enthusiasts, Furtwängler's interpretations retain a special place due to the conductor's distinctive treatment of the composer's themes, developments, climaxes, and codas that captures what one critic has called "the essence of Bruckner." For them, Furtwängler's canonical recordings of the last six symphonies -- the 1951 Stuttgart Fourth, the 1942 Berlin Fifth, the partial 1943 Berlin Sixth, the 1951 Cairo Seventh, the 1944 Vienna Eighth, and the 1944 Berlin Ninth -- have long been part of their basic collection. But though all these recordings have been circulating for years -- some continually on major labels like Deutsche Grammophon, some intermittently on pirate labels like Arkadia, and some only in the west after the original tapes were highjacked by the Red Army after the fall of Berlin -- this is without a doubt their finest incarnation yet. Using what's described as the "revolutionary harmonic balancing technique" of one Aaron Z. Snyder, the sound here is clearer, cleaner, and more present than any heretofore. The recordings are manifestly antique; there's nothing like recordings made during the Second World War for pure antediluvian atmosphere. But Snyder's technique has allowed as much of the music as possible to emerge from the mists of time, and while the result isn't revelatory, it is still impressive enough that dedicated Furtwängler fans will still want to at least sample this box.
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