Album

Reginald Goodall made his name in the 1940s and '50s as a conductor of operas, most famously with works by Benjamin Britten (Peter Grimes, The Rape of Lucretia) and Richard Wagner (The Ring of the Nibelung, Parsifal); but due to the vagaries of his career, he barely won recognition as a conductor of symphonic music. This 2006 BBC Music release of Goodall's rendition of Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 in D minor was recorded in 1974, and is one of his scarce non-operatic recordings. Along with the Symphony No. 8 in C minor, recorded at the 1969 Proms, and the Symphony No. 7 in E major, recorded live in 1971, this CD is a small but significant part of Goodall's recorded legacy. Unfortunately, because the tapes of this performance were of inferior quality, even for the analog technology of the time, there are a few minor sound defects, several balance problems, and continuous tape hiss to mar what is otherwise a solid and mostly powerful reading. However, the instruments are quite clear (if sometimes too blunt in the brass and a little shrill in the woodwinds), so every note is accounted for, and the symphony as a whole comes across coherently. Listeners who know this work well will be able to appreciate the symphonic argument and grasp Goodall's reverent, Furtwängler-esque interpretation, if not all the finer qualities of the BBC Symphony Orchestra's playing. Anyone coming to grips with the Symphony No. 9 for the first time, though, is advised to track down a first-rate DDD recording of the piece and postpone acquiring this historic disc until the work, with all its difficulties, is fully absorbed. Because the pacing is quite broad here, it's easy to get lost in Bruckner's slow currents; and lacking better sound quality, it's far too easy to dismiss this symphony as muddy, which it is not. This CD is recommended for connoisseurs of old-fashioned Bruckner recordings and for students of Goodall's passionate but lucid and formally sound conducting.

© Blair Sanderson, Rovi

CD 1
Anton Bruckner Composer Symphony No.9 in D-, WAB109 ('Unfinished') Work 1:06:28 BBC Symphony Orchestra Orchestra, Reginald Goodall Conductor
1	1.Feierlich, misterioso	27:39			$3.99
2	2.Scherzo: Bewegt, lebhaft	11:18			$1.99
3	3.Adagio: Langsam, feierlich	27:31			$3.99