Bruckner: Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, WAB 101 (Live)

Album review

The series of the complete Symphonies by Anton Bruckner recorded in concert by the Staatskapelle Dresden under the direction of Christian Thielemann continues here with the Symphony No. 1 in C minor, captured on the 1st of September 2017 at the Semperoper Dresden. As Brucknerians know, the choice of version is of paramount importance when it comes to performing a Bruckner symphony, since Bruckner was never satisfied and would constantly revise his works.

Make no mistake, this Symphony No. 1 is no first draft: the two pieces which preceded it had also undergone substantial revisions. Christian Thielemann chose the first, and minimal revision from 1877 (known as the "Linz version") which retains the formal and harmonic audacity of the original, in contrast to the composer's later re-writings made in 1891, when his style had evolved considerably.

It has often been said of this First Symphony that it was perhaps "the first modern symphony" (according to Paul-Gilbert Langevin) and marks a leap forward just as much as Beethoven's Eroica did in its own time. The work begins, curiously enough, with a marching rhythm (which Mahler would bring back for his Sixth) before developing into the three-theme sonata form (instead of the usual two-theme structure) that would become Bruckner's hallmark across the eight symphonies that followed. It is this innovative, hallucinatory aspect that is foregrounded here in a beautiful performance by Christian Thielemann and the wonderful musicians of the Staatskapelle, who are very much speaking in their native language with this recording. © François Hudry/Qobuz