# Karajan/Vienna Bruckner 8th Query



## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

So I ordered this Karajan/Vienna Bruckner 8th CD on eBay:










I was really excited to get it, but when I received it today I noticed that it was the original 1989 pressing, and not the remaster as was pictured on the listing. I am returning it, but I'll probably burn it to my hard drive first.

To those of you who have heard both the original pressing and the remaster, my question is this: is it worth replacing it with the remaster? Or should I just deal with what I have? I am interested in good sound, but I'm not really an audiophile by any means.

Thanks in advance.


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## Guest (Feb 22, 2020)

I think this is a case where there remaster was a significant improvement in the overall tonal balance and image. The original was too dry, as I recall. Sony has a video version of this performance, and I recall reading that they went as far as playing the recording from loudspeakers on the stage of the Wiener Grossen Musikvereinssaal so they could record the reverberation and add it back in. Maybe my memory is playing tricks.

I regard it as one of the truly great Bruckner recordings, and worth having in the best version available. I may be influence by the fact that I heard Karajan/WPO perform this work live about the same time the recording was made, and it was the most transcendent performance I ever experienced.


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## Bigbang (Jun 2, 2019)

flamencosketches said:


> So I ordered this Karajan/Vienna Bruckner 8th CD on eBay:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Keyword: Not really an audiophile by any means. I am the same way. I own the original--bought is for 50 cents so my attitude is "beggars can't be choosy" an so I do not care to upgrade from it. I used to check out the same masters from the library. If it managed to get where it is today (the legendary status) it cannot be that bad but personally I am not missing anything I have not heard yet.


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## Guest (Feb 22, 2020)

In view of what BigBang said, the remaster will probably not change whether you like it or not. If you do find you like it a lot, the better master might be worth the trouble.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Just listened to both, side by side and I can detect little difference apart from a warmer sound to the recording. Perhaps it's my knackered ears but I never thought it needed improving anyway. I'd keep the original. It's a great performance. That's the one I have.


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

Merl said:


> Just listened to both, side by side and I can detect little difference apart from a warmer sound to the recording. Perhaps it's my knackered ears but I never thought it needed improving anyway. I'd keep the original. It's a great performance. That's the one I have.


Did you listen to both in their entirety? Or just bits and pieces? If the former, wow, you have really gone the extra mile to answer my question, thanks! :lol:

I appreciate everyone's input! I will go ahead and listen, get my money back-I really am upset that the listing incorrectly showed the newer master-and then decide if it's worth upgrading. I am not a Bruckner guy in any way, but I was hoping this would be the recording to make this huge symphony "click" for me. Thanks!


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

Oddly enough, it was Karajan's 1958 EMI recording of this Symphony that made it click for me. It's a really exciting performance. True, Bruckner 8 isn't meant to be "exciting" per se, but the red-blooded approach from over 60 years ago, in fabulous early stereo, makes one appreciate the more stately/celestial/cerebral approach of others. It's not my favourite recording. That would possibly be Tintner's monumental 1887 Edition on Naxos. But I hope you get my drift.

Similar with Mahler 9, my two favourite performances of that work are Ancerl and Georg Solti's London recording. Neither has a hint of sentimentality, which appeals greatly as far as I am concerned.

I have the Vienna recording currently under the spotlight on a Penguin Rosette reissue. As far as I am aware, it's the original mastering, and jolly good it is too!









If you can fill the unforgiving 80 minutes
With 4800 seconds' worth of distance run, 
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, 
And-which is more-you'll be a Bruckner guy too my son!


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## Rmathuln (Mar 21, 2018)

Baron Scarpia said:


> I think this is a case where there remaster was a significant improvement in the overall tonal balance and image. The original was too dry, as I recall. Sony has a video version of this performance, and I recall reading that they went as far as playing the recording from loudspeakers on the stage of the Wiener Grossen Musikvereinssaal so they could record the reverberation and add it back in. Maybe my memory is playing tricks.
> 
> I regard it as one of the truly great Bruckner recordings, and worth having in the best version available. I may be influence by the fact that I heard Karajan/WPO perform this work live about the same time the recording was made, and it was the most transcendent performance I ever experienced.


I concur about the remaster. Many of Karajan's 1980s recording departed from the closely mic'd dead sound that characterized the 1970s recordings s annoyingly. But, the digital recordings show all of the earmarks of 1980s digital sound.

I would be delighted if UMG would release this and the corresponding Bruckner 7th as a CD/Blu-Ray combo. I have not even seen a Japanese SACD of this recording.
Especially since QOBUZ does not offer a Hi-Res version of it.


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

Thank you for highlighting Qobuz for me. Just checked it out for the first time, and found very affordable downloads of two sets I have been after for ages - Igor Zhukov playing the Scriabin Sonatas, and Kondrashin doing the Shostakovich Symphonies! Brilliant


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