It’s a curious thing that as late as 1973 Lovro von Matacic would choose to record the Schalk edition of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 5, which with its various cuts, re-orchestrations, and “improvements” makes for a decidedly “inauthentic” (and being posthumous, unauthorized) presentation of Bruckner’s thoughts. That said, it’s even more curious that Matacic doesn’t give himself fully over to Schalk, as he retains many of the excised passages (except for one really obnoxious cut in the finale), and keeps some of the original orchestration (most wisely in the finale’s opening–eschewing the Schalk’s tacky replacement of the clarinet with a trumpet).
What’s left is an odd sort of hybrid: most of Bruckner’s notes are there, just not all the sounds he intended. Thus, those intimately familiar with the score will find brass chords replaced by winds (or just not there at all) at certain points in the first movement, while in other places the brass is enhanced–Schalk deemed Bruckner’s open-fifth harmonies needed “filling-in”. There’s quite a bit of diddling with the fugue, making it sound more bizarre than tongue-in-cheek. Most notorious is the coda. With its cymbals, rhythmic tympani, piccolo, and other gaudy additions, it sounds like it was edited by Stokowski with the assistance of P.T Barnum, and actually evokes more laughter than outrage.
Despite all this there is some merit to this performance as the Czech Philharmonic’s playing blends power with exceptional ensemble clarity. Matacic leans on the brass quite a bit, but the players make ethereally beautiful sounds in the quiet passages. Matacic also drives the tempo hard in the outer movements and in the scherzo, while in the adagio he’s relatively sedate. The 1970s recording has solid impact, if a touch of distortion at the climaxes.
To be sure, anyone interested in Bruckner’s Fifth should absolutely not start with this edition (see the reference recordings for original-version recommendations), but those wanting to venture into new and strange territory will most likely find their curiosity satisfied here.
