Before his retirement in 2014, conductor Michael Gielen was one of the leading specialists in modernist music, though like several of his colleagues, he also demonstrated a strong aptitude for the standard symphonic repertoire, including the symphonies of Anton Bruckner. Gielen's recordings of the nine numbered symphonies with the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken are presented on 10 CDs in this trimline box set from SWR Music, the second of two volumes. (The first ...
Read More
Before his retirement in 2014, conductor Michael Gielen was one of the leading specialists in modernist music, though like several of his colleagues, he also demonstrated a strong aptitude for the standard symphonic repertoire, including the symphonies of Anton Bruckner. Gielen's recordings of the nine numbered symphonies with the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken are presented on 10 CDs in this trimline box set from SWR Music, the second of two volumes. (The first volume consisted of Gielen's recordings of works by Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, and Schubert.) Here, Gielen conducts a mix of original versions and revised editions, which may confuse some listeners. For the most part, the symphonies are not dramatically different in their musical content, except for the original version of the Symphony No. 4 in E flat major, "Romantic," which differs substantially from the later, more familiar revisions, and the Symphony No. 8 in C minor, which...
Read Less
