Nikolaus Harnoncourt / Wiener Philharmoniker BRAHMS Ein Deutsches Requiem

Widely respected as a pioneer in the field of early music who employed original instruments in performances of Baroque and Classical music, Nikolaus Harnoncourt is also admired for his insightful interpretations of 19th century music. His 2007 recording with the Vienna Philharmonic of Johannes Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem is characteristic of his handling of the Romantic repertoire, insofar as he clearly knows the best scholarship on performance style, yet neither makes authenticity a fetish nor lets expression suffer through an obsession with period practice. The sound of the orchestra is quite modern and full, and there is no attempt to make the strings play with minimal vibrato or to make the ensemble seem reduced in size or altered in the seating arrangement, unlike some historically informed performances. Furthermore, Harnoncourt's tempos are conventional, and the pacing is steady and even on the slow and reverent side, so his approach shows that he is far from doctrinaire in his choices and doesn't always follow a revisionist approach. The singing by the Arnold Schoenberg Choir is quite rich and smoothly blended, and the solos by soprano Genia Kühmeier and baritone Thomas Hampson are warm and expressive. Overall, the sound of the recording is fine, though RCA's microphone placement seems a little distant and soft-focused, so some of the details in the counterpoint seem hazy. (Blair Sanderson)

Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1929-2016) / Wiener Philharmoniker ANTON BRUCKNER Symphony No. 9

Anyone who loves Bruckner's music will want to hear this recording since it contains the Finale of his Symphony No. 9, the music which, according to Bruckner's musical executors, never existed except in the mind of the dying composer. But while that story fooled generations of conductors into performing a three-movement version of the Ninth, musicologists have long known that most of the Finale existed in score and sketch at Bruckner's death. But what the musicologists knew to be true has been almost completely ignored until this recording. Almost completely ignored because there have been three previous recordings of Ninth's Finale over the past 20 years and all of them are far more compelling than this one by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Vienna Philharmonic. For one thing, all the other recordings of the Finales have been completed with the bits that Bruckner didn't finish filled in, while Harnoncourt's recordings only have the bits that Bruckner finished and interpolates a lecture to describe what's missing. While this may be musicologically more accurate, in performance it is at best disruptive, at worst dull. For another thing, all the other Finales are performed with the overwhelming need to compel belief in the Finale while Harnoncourt himself seems unconvinced of its merits. But then, Harnoncourt's recording of the three completed movements are just as unconvincing. In Harnoncourt's performance, his opening movement alternates long stretches of quiet tedium with short bursts of loud bombast, his Scherzo alternates long stretches of loud hammering with short bursts of quiet inanity, and his Adagio alternates long stretches of loud, painfully dissonant music with shot bursts of louder, more painfully dissonant music. Harnoncourt's recording doesn't make a case for a four-movement Ninth; it doesn't even make a case for a three-movement Ninth. (James Leonard)