Carlo Maria Giulini’s 1974 Bruckner Symphony No. 2 initially only made it to U.S. shores as a German EMI import LP. Its first CD release was on Testament in 2001, and it now reappears on the Vienna Symphony Orchestra’s house label. In the 1970s recordings of Bruckner’s Second symphony were few and far-between (in contrast to today, with three versions released in the last month). Compared to the fleet and fastitdious Jochum and Haitink recordings, Giulini’s performance rendered the piece with a gravitas usually reserved for the composer’s later symphonies, particularly in the first two movements, which offer slower tempos and expansive phrasing.
The conductor draws beautiful sounds from the Vienna Symphony (particularly in the adagio, where the extended climax fairly glows), captured in spacious, wide-dynamic sound by EMI. After a somewhat fast and facile scherzo, Giulini’s powerful and propulsive Finale is marred only by his choice of text: the Nowak edition of the score which, in addition to cuts in the other movements, features an unfortunate excision in the finale’s coda that shortchanges the drama of the closing bars. Jochum uses the same version, but the cut seems distinctly at odds with Giulini’s large-scale and spacious conception. (Karajan also uses Nowak, but wisely restores the debilitating cut in the finale.)
Given what I said above about the rarity of Bruckner 2 recordings, it’s surprising that Horst Stein’s version appeared almost at the same time (1975). Stein uses the Haas edition (no Nowak cuts) and leads the Vienna Philharmonic, which plays with greater personality and power than its neighboring band. His reading is also more incisive, hewing more to Beethoven than to Bruckner’s Eighth (although Decca’s recording is not as luminous as EMI’s). Of course, this won’t matter to Giulini fans, for whom the chance to hear the conductor make his mark on music so outside his latter-year repertory is recommendation enough.
