February, 2014: Symphony No. 3 / Rozhdestvensky / Moscow Radio & TV Symphony Orchestra

The Russian conductor Gennadi Rozhdestvensky has a long and interesting association with the music of Anton Bruckner. For the Soviet recording company, Melodiya, he recorded what is still the most complete cycle of Bruckner Symphonies. It not only included the two early symphonies in f minor and d minor but also multiple versions of Symphonies 1, 3, and 4, and an early version of the Samale / Mazzuca Finale of the Symphony No. 9. The recordings were all performed with the USSR Ministry of Culture Orchestra. The cycle was released on Melodiya LPs, and briefly on Japanese BMG and Russian Venezia CD sets. Many of them are available now as downloads. While Rozhdestvensky claimed to have recorded the 1887 Bruckner 8th and he did perform it in concert, no commercial recording has ever been released. But, in addition to this impressive symphony cycle project, Rozhdestvensky recorded some Bruckner symphonies for the Moscow Radio. These include Symphonies 1, 3, 8 and 9. All of these recordings have appeared in various ways over the years but are now all deleted. The Symphony No. 9 can be found as the Download of the Month for November, 2009. This month we feature the symphony No. 3 in a performance recorded in 1972 While this particular CD lists the performance date as January 5th, most other sources list the performance date as February 13th. This performance has appeared on a few CDs and LPs but the best processing was on the CD issued by ICONE as part of their "Russian All Star Orchestra" series. ================================ Bruckner: Symphony No. 3 in D Minor (1890 Rattig Edition) -Gennadi Rozhdestvensky -Moscow Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra -February 13, 1972 -ICONE CD ICN-9428-2