A very personal note on Karajan’s performances of Bruckner

I have a very strong personal impression of Anton Bruckner (1824-1896). There are special sparkles that distinguish this great Austrian composer from others. Not only do I understand him, but I can also recognize his well-understood performances among the others…

Bruckner’s difference cannot be explained. Although I have thought long and hard for many years about the reasons that exclude him from the discussion and make him special, I have not been able to come to any conclusion. My mind always succumbed to my feelings and left the field of discussion. Perhaps this is the great master’s achievement; as an aesthetic peak that hangs in eternity, it can only be felt, not realized…

In my opinion, Anton Bruckner is a mysterious alchemist who buries the complexity of sensuality in the heart of his works. He is a master who uses ingenious means to reveal those enormous inner fluctuations that defy reason and suggest surrender to happiness and fate, and who skillfully penetrates the darkest corners of the psyche. To hear him today remains the selective privilege of a very elite understanding of music. For the great master is as difficult to understand as he is to perform. Perhaps that is why he is less known today than he was in the last century. Yet it would not be wrong to claim that he sits comfortably on his eternal throne as one of the pinnacles of classical music. The inaccessible depth of the symphonic structure, which he constructs like a spider’s web, the intricate web architecture, which he develops in the rising tempo, and the dense, all-encompassing construction set him apart from the other Romantics, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikocsky and Rachmaninov, who is better known for his piano, and put him in a separate, almost indefinable place in my eyes. With his experimental endeavors, I could perhaps compare him to Dimitri Shostakovich, a much later composer. However, this unwarranted comparison does not eliminate Bruckner’s uniqueness; on the contrary, it enhances it. For there is no place in Bruckner for Shostakovich’s obvious and sometimes disturbing ironies. In Bruckner, everything is in its place, in a planned and leveled pattern.

I have listened to many recordings of Bruckner, but the one that impresses me the most is the recording of the opening movement of the 7th Symphony by the master conductor Herbert von Karajan, which exquisitely represents the composer’s character. There are many reasons for this, but here I will write my interpretation based on my own experience and subjectivity.

Firstly, in my opinion, there is a perfect and astonishing harmony between Herbert von Karajan’s sense of tempo and Anton Bruckner. If I had to come up with a descriptive adjective for Karajan, which is not for me at all, I would unhesitatingly nickname the late conductor “Adagio Karajan”, and I would appeal to the reader’s magnanimity in the face of the well-intentioned purity of the analogy. Indeed, the great conductor brings out the calm rhythms with a tremendous intensity and clarity of feeling. This is true of all his recordings, but in my opinion it is most true of the Bruckner recordings. Karajan’s conducting captures Bruckner’s spirit and engages in a conversation, an enquiry with him at the end of eternity.

The second is the meticulousness of Karajan’s orchestration and the enormous success of his choice of personnel, which gives him the power of such impenetrable depth. I don’t think we can find another name in the last century who has been as successful as the great conductor in building a harmonious orchestra. Of course, this is also due to the meeting and the spirit that is captured together as a result of hard work. However, it should not be forgotten that it was the master’s unique pedagogy that created this.

Third, Karajan found extremely favorable and rich working conditions for himself. It was as if God had sent this great man to the right place at the right time to leave us with exquisite and clean recordings. The 1960s and 1970s in Vienna and Berlin were certainly the right place for all this.

So why don’t we tire our souls a little and listen to a Bruckner recording?