Luogo e data di registrazione		Lukaskirche, Dresden (Germania): - dicembre 1978 (Symphony No. 1) - luglio 1980 (Symphony No. 2) - gennaio 1977 (Symphony No. 3) - dicembre 1975 (Symphony No. 4) - febbraio & marzo 1980 (Symphony No. 5) - giugno 1978 (Symphony No. 6) - dicembre 1976 (Symphony No. 7) - novembre 1976 (Symphony No. 8) - gennaio 1978 (Symphony No. 9)
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producers		Christfried Bickenbach (Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5 & 6) David Mottley (Nos. 4, 7 & 8) Reimar Bluth (No. 9)
	Balance Engineer		Claus Strüben
	Prima Edizione LP		Eterna - 8 27 426 - (1 LP) - durata 47' 08" - (p) 1980 - (No. 1) Eterna - 8 27 531 - (1 LP) - durata 52' 41" - (p) 1981 - (No. 2) Eterna - 8 27 138-139 - (2 LP's) - durata 36' 29" & 18' 42" - (p) 1979 - (No. 3) Eterna - 8 27 533-534 - (2 LP's) - durata 34' 39" & 30' 28" - (p) 1982 - (No. 4) Eterna - 8 27 737-738 - (2 LP's) - durata 40' 42" & 36' 46" - (p) 1982 - (No. 5) Eterna - 8 27 535 - (1 LP) - durata 56' 23" - (p) 1981 - (No. 6) Eterna - 8 27 537-538 - (2 LP's) - durata 46' 59" & 22' 27" - (p) 1980 - (No. 7) Eterna - 8 27 681-682 - (2 LP's) - durata 27' 55" & 48' 10" - (p) 1979 - (No. 8) Eterna - 8 27 197 - (1 LP) - durata 60' 46" - (p) 1982 - (No. 9)
	Edizione CD		EMI Classics - 5 73905 2 - (9 CD's) - (c) 2000 - ADD
	Note		Recorded in co-production with the former ex-VEB Schallplatten, Berlin

BRUCKNER - Symphonies Nos. 1-9 Anton Bruckner and his interpreters Those who have had the good fortune to encounter the composer Anton Bruckner early in life - Whether through one of his symphonies, the Te Deum one of the three great Masses - are certain to explore in detail the life and works of this creative being, especially if his music has moved their inmost soul more deeply than that of other great masters. Here is a composer who who met life head-on, unerringly negotiating his way through the trials and tribulations of his time, and his admirers praise him in the spirit and certainty of "Non confundar in aeternum", the triumphant concluding chorus of his Te Deum. Bruckner’s road was hard and fraught with difficulty, and he had already reached middle age before he began to produce one symphonic masterpiece after another, but now he was fully mature and sure of his genius. Bruckner conceived his First Symphony when he was forty-three, an age at which his mighty predecessors Mozart and Schubert had long since departed this world. He continued to revise it until the the end of his life when, ill and with strength failing, he constructed the cathedral-like arching sounds of his Ninth Symphony. It seems almost incredible to those of us brought up in the twentieth century that this symphonic genius, who united the best of the age with his art, was fated to accomplish his life’s work in a city whose over-sophisticated society did not understand him. Even though Bruckner's symphonies were beginning to enthuse audiences elsewhere, the musical establishment of fin de siècle Vienna made his life hard by denying him a constituency and perhaps even by despising him. In contrast to this less than propitious background, however, can be set these now famous words spoken by the Rector of the University of Vienna on 7 November 1891 when he conferred an honorary degree on Bruckner: "At the point where Science must cease, where its unbreachable bounds are set, there begins the realm of Art, able to express all that which remains hidden to Knowledge. I, Rector magnificus of the University of Vienna, bow down before the ex-schoolmaster from Windhaag..." In order to comprehend the music of Bruckner, it is not sufficient merely to contrast the engaging humanity of the schoolteacher's son from Ansfeld with the elemental genius of the ‘chosen one’. A full understanding of his life’s work involves examining the religious ethos behind his compositions, their ritual character and the composer’s intrinsic belief in a living God - the immutable expression of a devout soul. It was not just his final symphony which Bruckner dedicated to the Lord - his whole life was consecrated to His service. This singular, illustrious life came full circle when, on 15 October 1896, he was laid to rest in a coffin of shimmering gold beneath the great organ in the crypt of his spiritual home, the seminary church of St Florian. Now he was forever united with that regal instrument which he commanded as no other. Bruckner’s music, first ‘discovered' in its complete originality only in the twentieth century, is an intellectual phenomenon without precedent or sequel which is revealed through the scores of his nine mature symphonies and in the unique personality of their creator. In spite of occasional excursions abroad - as a much-acclaimed organist in Nancy, Paris and London, as a composer in Munich, Leipzig and Berlin, or as a visitor to the Bayreuth Festival - his life remained bound to his Austrian homeland, and in particular to the choir at the seminary of St Florian, his spiritual home near the city of Linz, to which he would always return. Here he served as a celebrated cathedral organist at the same time as studying under the renowned teacher of musical theory Simon Sechter, who for seven years taught him the ultimate mysteries of harmony and counterpoint, to which Bruckner applied himself with fanatical diligence. He once caused the utmost astonishment among a committee of experts at a final examination by improvising an elaborate organ fugue. Afterwards, the conductor and composer Johann Herbeck remarked: "It is he who should have been examining us!" Bruckner spent twenty-eight years of his life in Vienna, teaching and composing. He succeeded Sechter at the conservatory as a teacher of musical theory and organ, and later he lectured in a similar capacity at the university. The cliquish nature of the imperial capital made the life of the sensitive artist difficult, yet despite hostility from the powerful critic and Wagner opponent Eduard Hanslick and the intermittent rejections by the Vienna Philharmonic, Bruckner did not allow his creative energies to be curtailed. He always bounced back from the deepest despondency - for instance, after receiving criticism of his Eighth Symphony from his friend the conductor Hermann Levi, Bruckner rallied to create his Ninth (and final) Symphony which he dedicated to "the dear Lord". Bruckner’s doctor divulged the following utterance from his patient: "You see, I have already dedicated symphonies to two temporal monarchs, to poor King Ludwig, as a royal patron of the arts, and to our illustrious, beloved Emperor, whom I acknowledge as the supreme temporal Majesty; and now I dedicate my final work to the King of all kings, the dear Lord, and hope that He accords me enough time to complete the same, and that He will accept my gift with favour." The original Bruckner It was to take a further half-century before the European musical world - which by than had received Bruckner’s symphonies with open arms - was able to hear the composer’s wished-for original versions. It was part of the tragedy of Bruckner’s creative life that even his closest friends and students, such as the brothers Franz and Joseph Schalk and the conductor Ferdinand Löwe, believed that they should bring their own expertise into play by lending a helping hand in such technical areas as orchestration. The changes, which were often conceded only reluctantly by Bruckner, did not merely concern the reworking of orchestral tone colours in the spirit of the Wagner-ideal of the time, but also encroached on the symphonies’ uncommon form and their organ-like dynamic structure. In addition, ill-judged cuts were implemented whenever it was considered that the average listener might be overtaxed by what Bruckner had originally written. All these alterations were made with the intention of smoothing the path of Bruckner’s music into the world, and the results were generally accepted. The composer’s admirers only began to recognise the problem caused by such editorial interventions as recently as 1935, when on the evening of 2 April Siegmund von Hausegger conducted the Ninth Symphony at the Munich Tonhalle. Two versions were performed - the first edition (with revisions by Löwe), and Bruckner’s original score. Since then, the world has become familiar with Bruckner`s symphonic colossi in their original forms. Indeed, this was the chief objective of the International Bruckner Society, whose complete edition of the symphonies began to appear in 1934 through the auspices of the Wiener musikwissenschaftlichen Verlag. Robert Haas initiated this successful undertaking, which from 1951 continued under the direction of Leopold Nowak. Eugen Jochum, who for many years availed himself of the original versions, conducts the symphonies in these recordings with the Staatskapelle Dresden, an orchestra with a proud tradition of performing Bruckner. Eugen Jochum as Bruckner conductor Among the innumerable conductors who strive for a faithful interpretation of Bruckner’s symphonies, Eugen Jochum was pre-eminent in the generation that succeeded such celebrated figures as Arthur Nikisch, Hermann Levi, Carl Muck, Felix Mottl (and later Wilhelm Furtwängler and Siegmund von Hausegger). He was rightly considered the leading Bruckner exponent of his day, and his readings of the nine mature symphonies are characterised by a meticulous, balanced consideration of symphonic form. The spiritual foundations and metaphysical substance of Jochum’s approach were based on the affinity this Swabian conductor felt for the Austrian symphonist in whom he had believed so deeply from an early age. Eugen Jochum was the second son of a highly musical schoolteacher’s family from Babenhausen in Swabia - indeed, his two brothers also went on to become distinguished musicians. As a student at the renowned Benedictine Gymnasium of St Stephan in Augsburg, Eugen soon achieved proficiency on that most quintessentially Brucknerian of instruments, the organ. He became familiar with the many Baroque organs of Bavaria, and through long years of toil was eminently placed to judge correctly Bruckner's organ-register technique as it manifested itself in the scoring of his symphonies. From the young Eugen’s earliest days, Bruckner’s symphonic works were to accompany him on his path to the summit of international fame. In 1926 the budding twenty-four-year-old conductor stood in front of a great orchestra for the first time when he directed Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony at the Munich Tonhalle. The Fifth Symphony, too, played a significant part in several defining moments of Jochum’s long career, being the first work he conducted for Berlin Radio in 1932, and also in Hamburg where he became General Music Director in 1934. The symphony also featured in the programme when he inaugurated the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1949. Jochum was known to all the great European orchestras as the foremost Bruckner conductor, and he also acquired a similar role among non-European musicians who until then had remained relative strangers to Bruckner’s work. It goes without saying that during his long conducting career, this student of Hausegger accorded priority to all the original versions of the symphonies, and to those editions authorised by the composer. The spirituality of Jochum’s music-making was most evident in his love for the German Romantic tradition, though he was also an energetic and successful champion of certain contemporary composers such as Paul Hindemith, Carl Orff and Werner Egk. For many people, however, Jochum remains their undisputed guide who introduced them to Bruckner’s musical universe. As President of the German branch of the international Bruckner Society, he also devoted much of his time to organising the worldwide dissemination of Bruckner's works. His recorded legacy of the symphonies will continue along this road, providing a testament for generations to come. In a musical self-portrait of his youth, Eugen Jochum spoke of his deeply-felt relationship with the master of St. Florian: "I consider my musical ability as a gift from above. I wish for it never to become self-serving, and I believe it is my duty to serve and to act as an instrument for the thoughts of the great master, which in their turn articulate the thoughts of the Supreme Being, in as much as they touch upon the beauty of creation". Eugen Jochum died in 1987, and with him a true exponent of Bruckner’s works. Karl Ganzer (Translation: Mari Pračkauskas)