Bruckner: Symphony No. 1

Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra & Jaap Van Zweden

Regular: £13.99

Sale
Regular: £13.99

Unavailable

Unit Price: per

Cat No: CC72556

Release Date: 01 June 2015

Label: Challenge Classics

Packaging Type: Super Jewel Case (SACD)

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 608917255621

Genres: Classical Symphonies

Description
Jaap van Zweden's successful series devoted to all Bruckner's symphonies - on the Exton label and now Challenge Classics - continues with another instalment, the Symphony No. 1 in C minor, in which he conducts the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra (of which he is Honorary Chief Conductor).

Listening to the First Symphony is a trip of discovery through Bruckner's countryside, within the triangle formed by his birthplace of Ansfelden, St. Florian (with its famous Stift, where Bruckner, first as a choirboy and later as a mature musician, found the much-needed distance from the workaday world by playing the beautiful organ) and lastly Linz.

Bruckner began his First Symphony in January 1865 and completed the work on 14 April 1866. He conducted the first performance himself on 9 May 1868 in the Redoutensaal in Linz. In 1877 and again in 1884, the composer gave the score a thorough going-over and made a few modest alterations. But this was not the end of it: in 1890-91 he created the Wiener Fassung for Hans Richter, who wanted to conduct the Vienna premiere of the First Symphony. For this recording van Zweden has chosen the 1866 'Linz' version, which sounds "fresher and more genuine" than the more refined Vienna version.

Amsterdam-born Jaap van Zweden has risen rapidly in little more than a decade to become one of today's most sought-after conductors. He has been Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra since 2008, and Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra since 2012. Appointed at 19 as the youngest-ever concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, he began his conducting career in 1995 and held the positions of Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra (1996-2000), the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague (2000-2005), the Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra (2008-2011), and Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Radio Chamber Philharmonic from 2005-2011.

Personnel: Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Jaap van Zweden (conductor)
Tracklisting