Bruckner: Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major

Album review

Lance Friedel's second release on MSR Classics is a stirring account of Anton Bruckner's monumental Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, regarded by many as the composer's finest achievement in the art of counterpoint and symphonic structure. Friedel leads the London Symphony Orchestra with confidence and authority, and the musicians respond with precise execution and dramatic expression, especially in the superb brass section, which really takes this glorious music to heart. The Fifth is among the least controversial of Bruckner's symphonies because it wasn't subjected to the numerous revisions that make the early symphonies problematic, and it proceeds with a powerful logic that is inexorable. While the Fifth has yet to achieve the enormous popularity of the Symphony No. 4 in E flat major, "Romantic," and the Symphony No. 7 in E major, the increasing number of commercial recordings points to its stature among Brucknerian conductors, and Friedel's recording joins the masterful performances by Georg Tintner, Franz Welser-Möst, Benjamin Zander, Simone Young, and Gerd Schaller, which have raised the work's profile for modern audiences. Add to the LSO's magnificent performance the splendid 5.0 multichannel sound of this hybrid SACD, and it's evident that Friedel has produced a recording that belongs in every serious Bruckner collection. Highly recommended.
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