Bruckner 4

Barenboim & Staatskapelle (Berlin 20 June 2010)

Accentus/Unitel ACC 0217 blu-ray

A perfect restorative after Christmas and Boxing Day 2012, this is the first release of a monumental achievement, the "superhuman accomplishment of the complete Bruckner symphonies cycle in six June 2010 evenings at the Philharmonie, Berlin".

Barenboim shows many qualities similar to Wand's (q.v. below), his conducting taking you (and his players) into the music with minimal movements; often it his eyes and expression which set the mood, with charged stillness as arresting as his response to the climaxes.

Filmed on an array of cameras by a large team, this is a state of the art presentation and the cutting between views seems to be fine to my eyes in the 10s of the new century, a decade after Wand's as filmed at Scheswig-Holstein.

I have to confess that we are not omnivorous Brucknerians; those who are will surely do detailed comparative reviews of this latest series.

Peter Grahame Woolf

See Bruckner Symphonies on DVD (Wand)