December, 2017: Symphony No. 1 / Ernest Bour / SWF Symphony Orchestra

Click to enlarge In November of 1955, the Southwest German Radio (now SWR) undertook a project to record all of the numbered symphonies of Anton Bruckner with the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of its Music Director, Hans Rosbaud. The project began ambitiously with the Symphony No. 8. Then followed: Symphony No. 2 (1956) Symphony No. 7 (1957) Symphony No. 9 (1959) Symphony No. 3 (1960) Symphony No. 4 (1961) Symphony No. 6 (1961) Symphony No. 5 (1962) The Symphony No. 1 was scheduled for recording in 1963, but Rosbaud died unexpectedly in December of 1962 and the project was never completed. According to information available to me, the radio never got around to recording the Symphony No. 1 until March of 1976 when Ernest Bour (1915-2001) conducted a series of concert and studio performances. All of these were broadcast and in 2001, a CDR of one of the concert performances was released on the Japanese pirate label, Sardana. By offering this recording as a download, I hope that I am helping the sixty plus people who purchased the Symphonies 2-9 cycle from me by supplying them with a complete set of numbered symphonies.