Wiener Philharmoniker, Carl Schuricht - Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 8 & 9 (2012) [SACD]

The SACD recording is clear, full and rich, with instruments having a natural timbre. The recording of the Ninth is somewhat better balanced than the Eighth – the strings and brass being a tad too forward and percussion/woodwind slightly recessed. Both recordings were made in the Musikvereinsaal, Vienna – the Eighth in 1963 and the Ninth in 1961.
Amazon review:
By W. Chiles – Published on Amazon.com
Having given up any hope of finding these recordings in their last CD incarnation I was delighted to see that EMI not only re-released them but gave them the royal treatment, remastering them using high resolution DSD and SACD technology as well. Kudos to EMI on this project modeled after BMG-RCA’s “Living Stereo” SACD releases. They’ve taken several classic recordings, remastering them onto SACD at a budget price. I’m next going to order Klemperer’s set of late Mozart symphonies in this series, a recording I’ve already enjoyed on CD. Production quality is high with the 2 CDs encased in a hardbound book with full notes including the historical liner notes and artwork and photos. Truly the deluxe treatment.
Carl Schuricht conducts taught performances, a bit on the brisk side, but quite flexible in tempo, enough to keep them moving and exciting, giving full weight to the great climaxes without allowing them to sound like one blast of the brass after another. There is a sense of architecture with sufficient attention to nuance and detail to hold your interest. He was no stickler about which edition to use, primarily relying on the Novak editions but happy to insert Haas edition portions where he thought they were to best musical effect. My take is that the original versions of most composers works are of little more than scholastic interest once they’ve found weaknesses and revised them. Novak is therefore more to my liking in general but each to his own taste. Both symphonies receive outstanding performances with the edge going to the 9th. Though it was recorded in 1961, it’s sound is nearly as full and transparent as the 8th and it benefits from a bit more acoustic ambiance. Hard to beat the Vienna Philharmonic in the Grosse Vereinsaal for a Bruckner performance!
Much as I’ve enjoyed Karajan’s DG Bruckner 8th (it’s a particularly moving and spiritual sounding performance) I much prefer the sound on this SACD. It sounds to me as if you’re sitting in the front orchestra.
The sound quality, particularly in the 1964 recording of the 8th is somewhat dry, I suspect because the engineers were using cardioid microphones to increase presence and withhold the resonance of an empty Grosse Vereinsaal. It’s an attractive sound, very detailed yet surprisingly smooth sounding even in the biggest climaxes. There was a point in the finale of the 8h when I was amazed at how clean the sound was with an all out triple forte orchestra and cymbal crash, yet no brittleness to the texture. I have not yet heard the CD layer but the SACD sounds superb. One hears well defined placement of solo instruments with a wide stereo sound stage and a sense of depth when the woodwinds and brass make their entries. The engineers make use of 3 channels including your center speaker if you have a 5.1 setup. The stereo image is thus fully spread from left to right with no gaping hole in the center.
I would urge any serious audiophile to check out SACD technology. It totally eliminates the digital artifaction once heard in so many of those harsh brittle early 80s analog to digital CD remasterings. The new DSD recordings are amazingly transparent and typically in full surround revealing hall ambiance as well. The engineers added no surround channel or artificial reverb to these classic recordings however. They DID apply CEDAR noise reduction although I am not aware of any loss in treble frequencies. They likely cleaned up tape splices and momentary dropout on the original masters. It’s incredibly clean and lifelike sound.
EMI is notorious for pulling recordings out of release quickly. Get this one while you can!
If you’re looking for an SACD player, consider one by Oppo, a company manufacturing at least two models that can play Blu-Ray, DVD, SACD and DVD-Audio formats. OPPO BDP-83 Blu-ray Disc Player with SACD, DVD-Audio, and VRS Technology.