The rebels are at it again – Bruckner performed by a chamber orchestra! I count a grand total of 33 musicians (not including conductor Dausgaard) in the booklet photo. Certainly, this HAS to be a disaster, right? Well, no. In fact, it is bracing and refreshing to hear Bruckner’s 2nd symphony in this clothing. Firstly, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra generates a lot of sound for so few musicians. The venue, the Orebro Concert Hall in Sweden, seems to be an ideal place for this group and the sound is a perfect balance between direct and hall sound. Many large orchestra Bruckner recordings are done in huge acoustic spaces (like cathedrals) where the reverberant signature is such an integral part of the soundscape. Here, however, the setting is a bit more intimate and it matches the playing perfectly.

... If you prefer to wallow in a cathedral of sound for Bruckner, then this recording may not be your cup of tea. However, if you want a refreshing and sonically excellent alternative to the many large orchestra versions, I cannot recommend Dausgaard and the SCO too highly!

* * * * * Performance   * * * * * Sonics, SA-CD.net, April 2011

Klarhed, friskhed, dynamik ... tre ord, der har kendetegnet Thomas Dausgaards arbejde med DR SymfoniOrkestret igennem hans syv år som chefdirigent og også tre ord, der passer på hans seneste udgivelse med hans andet orkester, Svensk Kammerorkester, hjemmehørende i Ørebro.

De har indspillet Bruckners 2. symfoni, og så er der nok en læser, der tænker: "Bruckner og kammerorkester ... det kan ikke være rigtigt." Men det er det. De 38 mænd og kvinder i orkestret formår faktisk at blæse al tung, svulstig romantik ud af partituret, og tilbage står et transparent, energisk og levende lydbillede, som man også kender fra de andre udgivelser i samarbejdet mellem den danske dirigent og det svenske orkester, herunder deres Beethoven-cyklus og Schumann-indspilninger.

Det er Leopold Nowaks version fra 1877, man får at høre, en version, der bevarer det bedste fra Bruckners originale version fra 1872 og samtidig respekterer komponistens senere forbedringer (der foreligger et utal af variationer over Bruckners symfonier grundet hans konstante usikkerhed og tvivl om egne evner). Den mindre besætning gør fortolkningen tydelig, og de enkelte instrumenter får lov til at brillere, som nu horn i andensatsen, der smukt intoneret læner sig kælent op ad strygernes pizzicato.

Her er i det hele taget personlighed, karakter og masser af varme i de lyriske passager. Tempoet er pænt højt og rytmisk kant, men ikke irriterende hæsblæsende som i deres seneste udgivelse af Schuberts 8. symfoni, så lydbilledet er stadig transparent.

* * * * *  Jakob Holm, Kristeligt Dagbladet, 9 February 2011

Efter att under en vecka ha lyssnat till Wagner i kammarformat återvänder jag till en skiva som jag la undan efter en lyssning då den kom i höstas. Kan Bruckner i sinfoniettaversion ge något utöver inspelningarna som finns för den orkesterstorlek som tonsättaren tänkte sig? Jo, för all del, och kanske är detta något som blir framtidens melodi, nu när allt fler symfoniorkestrar blir för dyra att hålla i gång – anrika Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra är den senaste amerikanska symfoniorkester som genomgår en ”rekonstruktion” efter en smärtsam konkurs. Men det bör också sägas att den här tolkningen, som visst har kvaliteter – bland annat en påfallande fräschör i de lyriska partierna – lider av att styrkan är för liten. Framför allt låter det tunt i fortepartierna, och finalen känns tillkämpad. Men visst, försöket är vågat, och även om inte hälften är vunnet så är det nära på.

Thomas Andersberg, Dagens Nyheter, 27 April 2011

You don’t expect Bruckner to sound this charming ... In this slimmed-down Swedish performance it sings and dances – a 40-piece orchestra can react with a fleetness which the Vienna Philharmonic can’t match; Thomas Dausgaard’s direction suggests he’s steering a lightweight racing bike rather than manoeuvring an oil tanker. The sextuplets on high strings at the start are so cleanly articulated, and Bruckner’s galumphing bass lines are for once audible as melodies.

Listen to the beautiful wind writing, which looks back to Schubert and Schumann. Dausgaard’s slow movement is compelling – it’s great to hear those slow Brucknerian chord progressions for the first time in this work. In this symphony there’s no cymbal-capped climax, but the journey still thrills. Dausgaard’s witty Scherzo delights, and the Finale ends things in high style – Bruckner’s abrupt, almost brusque coda bringing us into bright, breezy daylight.

Graham Rickson, theartsdeks.com, 26 March 2011

Brucker’s Symphony No. 2 is the first in his symphonic output in which his fingerprints are everywhere in evidence. It was also the first to get heavily mauled by critics and even friends, which led the insecure composer to cut some passages, and alter others. This recording restores what was cut, and its of the best available printed version.

It can’t surprise anyone that people had doubts. For instance, bars 540 – 655 of the last movement, which Bruckner cut, which are played here, are so bizarre in their scoring, harmony, disjointedness, that they still come as a shock. What the Second gives us is the kind of structure that we find in the later great symphonies, but without the thematic inspiration, and often with clumsy developments. On the other hand the scherzo is vintage Bruckner, virtually a pre-write of that of the Ninth, and with a characteristically cryptic trio.  

This account is excellent – perfectly paced and balanced – and the smallish orchestra is all to the good in making Bruckner’s stark originality clear. But it would be unfair to regard the work itself, or this fresh account of it, as primarily to be listened to for instruction. The Second is a lovable and absorbing work, to be treasured for itself.

* * * * * Michael Tanner, BBC Music Magazine, March 2011

Having tackled the complete Schumann, and several by Schubert and Dvorak, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Thomas Dausgaard now take on Bruckner. His music is hardly an obvious candidate for chamber realization, though the Second Symphony is the most likely given its predominantly lucid textures and frequent recourse to solo woodwind, not that the present account feels under-powered in tuttis ... Clearly this account is something of a hybrid in terms of its edition. Those wanting the 1877 revision as Bruckner envisaged it will hardly go wrong with Carlo Maria Giulini, smoothing out excisions with a burnished eloquence in which the Vienna Symphony gives of its best and with spacious EMI sound. Dausgaard, however, can reasonably claim to have captured the best of all worlds: with SACD sound the best yet in this series for overall perspective, and an informative note by Benjamin Korstvedt, his is arguably a first choice for those new to the work.

Richard Whitehouse, International Record Review, March 2011

In this recording you definitely hear echoes of Schumann and Schubert … and  Beethoven  rather than Wagner, Strauss, Mahler – the usual gods with which Bruckner is associated – and I like that sense of hearing him afresh and of course that is where he came from. We know that he was saturated in that music. There is a kind of fragile quality because of the reduced forces and again that is a different aspect of Bruckner.  Bruckner the monumental, Bruckner the monolithic we know about but Bruckner the fragile and rather vulnerable we don’t hear so much of and I like that about this recording and I think the chamber forces serve that very well …

This is probably what Bruckner would have heard and that is an interesting question in terms of his musical imagination and what he was actually writing; the way in which he framed his musical material through his orchestration. What his revisers were doing to him was pulling him into a kind of line with a kind of post-Wagnerian ideal of what the orchestra should sound like.  And that’s quite a long way from thirty years before when Bruckner was writing the 2nd Symphony and so in that sense I think this is a somewhat revelatory recording – it absolutely does make us hear differently.

Julian Johnson, BBC Radio 3 Record Review, 27 February 2011

Bruckner played by a chamber orchestra? For a composer associated with the colossal, especially when it comes to orchestral forces, it seems an impossible contradiction. Yet when played with the transparency, flexibility and individual character of these admired Swedish musicians, the results are exhilarating. The second symphony dates from the start of Bruckner's time in Vienna, when his old enthusiasms for church music were yielding to a love of symphonic form, yet still with a sense of improvisation – the organist in him never far away. If you have an obstinate resistance to Brucknerian weightiness, this recording offers a fresh, totally unturgid approach.

Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, Sunday 23rd January 2011

A Bruckner symphony played by a chamber orchestra? The ear boggles at the prospect. But except for a loss of heft and lacerating force in the scherzo, I hear only gains in the Swedish Chamber Orchestra’s account of the pivotal Symphony No 2. Bruckner’s lyrical moments achieve a wonderful intimacy, while his quirky structures and changing textures knit together in a manner hard to duplicate with big forces. Dausgaard’s players, horns especially, revel in the spotlight. Refreshing.

Geoff Brown, The Times, 15 January 2011

It may seem strange that the 38-member Swedish Chamber Orchestra would want to take up the epic sweep of a symphony by Austrian composer Anton Bruckner (1824-1896). But under the commandingly confident baton of music director Thomas Dausgaard — a regular and welcome guest of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra — Bruckner's Symphony No. 2 gets a rhythmic edge that propels its four movements along with uncommon clarity ... Bruckner's sacred choral works are notable for their simplicity. The symphonies are the polar opposites, riddled with crazy dynamic and rhythmic shifts. But Dausgaard finds a way of communicating a bigger picture, using the underlying turmoil as a way of keeping the momentum going. These days, every conductor with aspirations to greatness wants to record Bruckner's symphonies, but few have done it with Dausgaard's level of insight and purpose.

John Terauds, Toronto Star, 11 January 2011

Anton Bruckners Zweite Symphonie mit nur 38 Musikern? Thomas Dausgard und sein Schwedisches Kammerorchester, die schon Schuberts beiden letzten Sinfonien eine Abmagerungskur verpasst haben, wagen sich jetzt bei BIS sogar an das spätromantische Repertoire heran und zeigen, dass selbst eine Bruckner-Symphonie schlanker gespielt werden kann als sonst üblich. Das Resultat kann sich hören lassen, und wie! Die herrlichen Themen dieser 1872 fertig-gestellten Symhonie kommen leichtfüssig daher, werden mit zarter Innigkeit vorgetragen.  Das Brucknersche Pathos wirkt ganz natürlich. geradezu selbstverständlich, und die vielen Generalpausen der Partitur sind hier ausserordentilich spannungsgeladen. Die Zweite, die hier in der Fassung von 1877 gespielt wird, erklingt bei Dausgaard in frühlingshalfter Frische, die, besonders im zweiten Satz, an eine bunt blühende Maienwiese denken lässt. Himmelstürmende, Ekstasen und empfindsame Tiefen sind dadurch keineswegs ausgeschlossen.

Jürgen Gahre, Kieler Nachrichten,  12 January 2011

Over het algemeen heb ik veel moeite met de vibratoloze aanpak, van romantische partituren. Soms lijkt het een doel in zichzelf te worden. Valery Gergiev had het al snerend over de non vibrato society. Toch kan ik niet ontkennen dat Dausgaard met een minimum aan vibrato, mooie dingen doet met het Zweedse kamerorkest. Zo zijn er nuances en melodielijnen in vooral het hout te bewonderen, die ik niet eerder gehoord heb. En ondanks het beperkte aantal musici, klinkt het toch voldoende volumineus. Wel zijn de climaxen hier en daar wat te ingetogen, behalve in de finale. Als ik gedwongen zou worden een symfonie van Bruckner aan te wijzen die voor een dergelijke aanpak in aanmerking zou komen, dan zou ik inderdaad de tweede kiezen. Maar ik moet er toch niet aan denken, dat Dausgaard onder zijn project Opening Doors bijvoorbeeld ook de achtste gaat doen. Een aardigheid is dat in het informatieve boekje enkele representatieve passages uit de symfonie, met tijdsaanduiding worden belicht. Dat zien we niet zo vaak. De uitstekende opname is behaaglijk en rijk aan kleur.

Emile Stoffels, Luister, 30 January 2011

Dausgaard entschlckt und betont rigoros die dynamische Kraft dieses Werkes Akzente und Kontraste sind Triumpf, die melodischen Bögen klingen erstaunlich schlank und erinnern mehr an Beethovn als an Mahler, Das ryhthmische Muster dominiert, die dramatische Geste ist die treibdende Kraft. Dazu kommt Dausgaards Wissen über die historische Aufführungspraxis, das er hier von einsetzt und tatsächlich ein komplett neues Brucknerbild entsehen lässt. Und das ist so faszinierend, dass wir nun ungeduldig auf weitere Aufnhamen warten. Auf die phantastische leistung des Symphonieorchesters des Bayerischen Rundfunks (BR Klassik 1999) braucht man eigentlich nicht hinzuweisen, aber das virtuose, präzise und klangschöne Spiel des Swedish Chamber Orchestra kann man nur in den höchsten Tönen lobel. Welch ein Unterscheid zu der pathetitschen Langeweile eines Maazel.

Alain Steffen, Pizzicato, February 2011

It’s sad that Bruckner hit so many roadblocks with the Second Symphony. After all, this is the first symphony that really gives us the Bruckner sound, with all its craggy grandeur. Yet it also hints more directly than the later symphonies at the roots of Bruckner’s symphonic writing in Beethoven and especially Schubert …

That’s especially true in a performance such as the one being considered here, part of a series by Dausgaard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra called Opening Doors. It’s an attempt to blow the cobwebs off some symphonic favorites that often get bloated treatments from standard symphony orchestras. Dausgaard has already turned his attention to Schubert, Schumann, and Dvorak, and while critical reception has been mixed, the consensus seems to be that Dausgaard and his forces have managed to freshen up the pieces they’ve recorded. 



Given those classical roots I mentioned earlier, the Second Symphony benefits from some fresh air. Working with a reduced string body, Dausgaard is able to let the various musical strands really stand out. Those climaxes dominated by the brass have a Schubertian purity of utterance, and they sound merely grand rather than disproportionate ... Of course, Dausgaard has the advantage of BIS’s surround-sound recording. The best thing about the BIS sound is the sense of depth and placement it conveys: that big timpani tattoo in the coda of the scherzo (following one of those famous pauses) occupies a definite place in space and makes quite an impact. The strings have a lovely sheen to them in this recording, while brass and especially winds are very present …I recommend this disc for the doors it can open on Bruckner’s Second Symphony.


Lee Passarella, Audiophile Audition, February 2011

L’infatigable Thomas Dausgaard poursuit son périple « portes ouvertes » en s’attaquant à Bruckner. Ce choix n’est pas illogique dans la perspective d’explorer les partitions de l’époque romantique en décapant le texte musical. De plus après Schumann, Schubert et Dvorák, Bruckner devait inévitablement passer au scanner du chef d’orchestre. On est juste un peu surpris du choix de la symphonie n°2 qui n’est pas la plus illustre, ni la plus aboutie de son auteur alors que les précédentes étapes visaient à mettre l’accent sur des grands chef-d’œuvres.

L’optique du musicien est toujours constante : alléger les effectifs et de soigner les équilibres. On se retrouve donc avec un Bruckner à l’esprit primesautier situé quelque part entre le Schubert des « petites symphonies » et le Schumann des premières expériences orchestrales. Mais le point nouveau par rapport aux précédents disques réside dans un geste musical moins brutal et volontairement démonstratif du chef dans les dynamiques (défaut plutôt rédhibitoire dans le dernier album Schubert). L’oreille peut ainsi se délecter du soin apporté aux équilibres entre les pupitres et à l’imbrication des thèmes. Le « scherzo » sonne ainsi avec toute la légèreté requise parfumée d’une douce poésie campagnarde. On est loin d’un Bruckner plutôt sanguin et minéral tel que le pratiquait Eugen Jochum à la tête de la Staatskapelle de Dresde dans sa seconde intégrale Bruckner (EMI ou Brilliant).

Du côté des choix des tempi, le chef ne joue pas la montre, mais se montre, là encore, soigneux de la logique de la partition et semble se griser des thèmes mélodiques. A l’exception des deux derniers mouvements, un peu plus vifs, Thomas Dausgaard est assez proche de la lecture de Jochum-Dresde (notre référence dans cette œuvre).

L’auditeur écoute donc un Bruckner de laboratoire, très esthétique, mais qui peut-être manque un peu de nerf et de puissance pour transcender la partition et ses faiblesses. Jochum à Dresde reste donc sur la plus haute marche du podium, suivi par les lectures de Chailly (Decca) et de l’inattendu Skrowaczewski (Œhms).

On espère quand même la suite des explorations bruckneriennes du chef et de ses musiciens géniaux, avec une symphonie n°3 ou n°4 ?

Pierre-Jean Tribot, Resmusica.com 23 December 2010

There are plenty of recordings of Anton Bruckner's symphonies and anyone producing a new CD today must be able to impress and offer something new. As does the Swedish Chamber Orchestra under its conductor Thomas Dausgaard ,,, Bruckner's 2nd Symphony does not lose its musical force as a result of  the ensemble's smaller orchestration. On the contrary, it gains through the high transparency of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra; the recording has very clean intonation and is rhythmically exact. It is based on the edition by Leopold Nowak, whose aim was to preserve  the best of Bruckner's original version of 1872 and to respect as many of the subsequent amendments by  the composer. Even with its audibly smaller sound there is an amazing dynamic range. The timbre and balance of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra is remarkable.

Conclusion: A really fresh and very fine new recording of Bruckner's second Symphony. It will be exciting to see how the "Opening Doors" series proceeds!

Radio Stephansdom (Austria), 24 November, 2010