Claudio Abbado, Lucerne Festival Orchestra - Bruckner Symphony No. 5 (2011) [Blu-ray]

This interpretation of Bruckner's awe-inspiring Fifth Symphony reflects the composers burgeoning powers and exquisite compositional artistry. As The Guardian poetically states: The composer himself, one suspects, might have leapt to embrace Abbado as an ideal interpreter.

Abbado finds layers and layers of nuance and meaning in the symphony. Any aura of ritual or of a grinding symphonic machine is banished and something much more organic is in evidence; it’s less a sonic cathedral (to use the standard Bruckner cliché) and more of a Beethovenian or Mahlerian evocation of the natural world. The chorales—strings in the second movement or the “11 apostles” in the Finale—are thankfully shorn of any Hollywood religiosity and just seem to blossom inevitably from musical seeds planted much earlier on. Abbado leads the Scherzo with exceptional lift and lightness, but still allows the obsessive quality to come through without nearly as much hard-headedness—the “country bumpkin” cliché—as is often the case. And then there are the felicities provided by all those world-class instrumentalists. For just one example, listen to the seamless manner with which phrases are passed from horn to oboe to flute at the very end of the second movement.

Michael Beyer, the veteran orchestral video director, keeps the cameras in step with the entire group of players, accompanied by tactful close ups of the soloists and the expressive conductor when called for. His deft videography keeps the pace going in spite of the frequent slow musical passages. Colors and detail are stunninly lifelike. The picture is spectacular and lifelike.

The sound is glorious in stereo, especially with multichannel—richly sonorous, dynamic, detailed, and dimensional. I’ve never witnessed a large audience listen so quietly before; everyone present in the Concert Hall of KKL Luzern for the two performances generating this video last August knew, I’m sure, that they were witnessing something special. They seem afraid to breathe, much less cough or fidget in their seats. As has become the custom, flowers rain down on the performers after the concert’s conclusion. The audience rises to its feet, something that doesn’t happen all that often in Europe. - Fanfare

Symphony No.5 in B-flat major, WAB 105
I. Introduktion: Adagio – Allegro
II. Adagio: Sehr langsam
III. Scherzo: Molto vivace (schnell) – Trio: Im gleichen Tempo
IV. Finale: Adagio – Allegro moderato

Recorded Live in Concert, Lucerne 8/19–20, 2011
Lucerne Festival Orchestra
Claudio Abbado, Conductor