Bruckner - Symphony No. 5 Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra / Nikolaus Harnoncourt Recorded live at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, 25 and 27 October 2013 RCO Live Blu-ray disc RCO 14106 or DVD RCO 14103 Timings: (i)20:15 (ii)12:30 (iii)13:04 (iv)21:54 Some Bruckner conductors get slower, and slower, as they get older; but not Nikolaus Harnoncourt. The second movement of the Fifth Symphony is marked in the score, ‘Sehr langsam’ - very slow. But there have been a number of recordings recently that seem to wish to match the fact that the key is the same, the thematic material closely related, with the idea that Adagio and Scherzo should be of similar length, or to interpret the Alle breve time signature of the Adagio to indicate a fairly quick tempo, contradicting the sehr langsam marking. Already, ten years ago, in his recorded performance with the Vienna Philharmonic on RCA, Harnoncourt was taking the slow movement fairly briskly; it lasted 15 minutes. Now, recorded live with the Royal Concertgebouw, he has speeded up still further and the Adagio is dispatched in a mere 12 ½ minutes, half a minute shorter than the Scherzo, and at least five minutes shorter than recordings by Jochum, Sinopoli and many others. On first hearing, with the preconceptions created by these slow performances, it seems quite unacceptable, especially as the string players of the Concertgebouw also seem somewhat unnerved at the tempo of the second theme on its first appearance and don’t manage to articulate clearly the quaver-semiquavers in its opening bar. However, hearing the performance again, fully prepared, it doesn’t seem quite so dire and Harnoncourt’s approach not without its rewards. The oboe solo that opens the Adagio has at this speed an attractive sort of veiled wistfulness rather than the sombre mournfulness of some performances, and the sound of the orchestra, especially the brass, is splendid throughout. In fact, it is the sound that appeals most in this recording. Time and again I found myself taken by the clarity and the beauty of the sound, the crispness of the ensemble in the big brassy outbursts, how wonderful the brass and timps sound together - and it is that which might make me wish to hear it repeatedly. The first movement is quite impressive, but Harnoncourt’s way with the score has little of the sense of steady pulse or direction necessary to give the work cumulative power. He avoids some of the disruptive exaggeration that irritates in his Vienna Philharmonic performance - the three accented notes in the string section of the slow introduction, although still heavily accented here, do not disrupted the rhythmic flow as they did in the earlier performance. On the other hand, the Vienna strings play with greater passion and more weight than the altogether lighter touch of the Concertgebouw players. The Adagio becomes a rather lightweight pastoral interlude, generating little of the passion needed to carry work through to its transcendent conclusion. Harnoncourt, as in his earlier recording (and like Gerd Schaller in the CD reviewed above) observes the alternative reading for clarinet and flute in last three bars. The Scherzo is attractively done, but not with any particularly beguiling lilt. Harnoncourt seems determined to lighten up the Finale, and the first and second themes are very chirpily played. Come the closing pages, between the sentences of the chorale, those moments when the horns reply nobly and heroically to the chorale, although the score is littered with triple forte markings, he has everybody - the strings and woodwind - go quiet. Maybe he’s determined that this shall not be a monumental Fifth, but something light and bright and full of contrast. At the end there’s only a second’s silence before there is a loud intrusion from someone who thought it necessary to yell, ‘Bravo!’. As a video, the disc is unexceptional. Space is cramped in the Concertgebouw and there is a somewhat claustrophobic feel to the filming. The shots are efficient, but nothing especially well-composed or evocative, the editing uninspired, and the sight of Harnoncourt conducting does not, to my mind, enhance the music. This was Harnoncourt’s ‘farewell’ performance with the Royal Concertgebouw after a collaboration spanning 38 years and 276 concerts, at 84 years old. If you are seeking an antidote to the almighty and overwhelming, some might say bombastic, Fifths of Karajan and Thielemann, then this would certainly fit the bill, and it has much beautiful playing and unexpected rewards - though I find the middle-way adopted by

Haitink, Horenstein, Sinopoli and others delivers more compelling views en route to a more brilliant and illuminated destination. Ken Ward