Can
Klaus Tennstedt conduct
Bruckner? Can one of the most intensely charismatic
Mahler interpreters of the last years of the twentieth century really conduct
Bruckner? Most of the great
Mahler conductors of the last years of the century --
Bernstein,
Solti,
Kubelík,
Abbado -- rarely conducted
Bruckner, and when they did, as in the case of
Bernstein's Ninth, the results were disastrous. Heretofore,
Tennstedt had only been on a 1982 EMI recording of
Bruckner's Eighth with the
London Philharmonic in the catalog, but from that recording it seemed clear that
Klaus Tennstedt was no
Bruckner conductor.
Like the 1982 Eighth,
Tennstedt's 1976 recording of
Bruckner's Third with the Symphonie Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks is intensely charismatic, a wonderful quality in
Mahler, whose music is about yearning and striving, but it has nothing to do with
Bruckner, whose music is about being and becoming. With his brave Bavarians beside him,
Tennstedt leads a mounted assault on
Bruckner's Third, sweeping through themes and over developments to take the final climax with sheer sonic power. But it's entirely beside the point. For all the charismatic intensity of
Tennstedt's interpretation,
Bruckner's Third is not about getting from here to there, but about being here, there, and everywhere -- and the more
Tennstedt strives, the less he succeeds. Profil's radio broadcast sound is a bit rough, but very evocative.