Just try to imagine it:
Vladimir Ashkenazy -- the Russian piano virtuoso specializing in the voluptuous
Rachmaninov -- conducting
Bruckner -- the Austrian composer of the most spiritual music of the nineteenth century. And
Ashkenazy is not even conducting top-drawer
Bruckner, but the Symphony in F minor from 1863, the dreaded "double zero," the symphony
Bruckner wrote so he could figure out how to write a symphony. Who in the world would want to hear
Ashkenazy conduct
Bruckner? Anyone who loves great
Bruckner, that's who. Okay, so the Symphony in F minor is still a terrible work, but
Ashkenazy and the Deutscher-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin do everything that can be done for it or any other work: they perform it with competence and conviction. But the great
Bruckner on this disc is
Ashkenazy and the Deutscher-Symphonie's performance of the Adagio from
Bruckner's String Quintet transcribed for string orchestra by Fritz Oeser. The Adagio is top-drawer
Bruckner from 1885 and
Ashkenazy conducts it with the fervor of
Furtwängler, the Deutscher-Symphonie plays it with the passion of the
Vienna Philharmonic, and Oeser does what can be done for it or any other work: he transcribes it with competence and conviction. Ondine's sound is massive and monumental, but not detailed enough. Despite the dreaded "double zero," this is a great
Bruckner recording.