The 2012 Brucknerathon: A Report
The official Brucknerathon logo for 2012 was provided courtesy of Rupert Hoerbst, an artist in Rainbach, Austria. For more information about his work, please visit his website, www.hoerbst.net During the course of the weekend twenty people attended with participants from Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, Texas, California, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. On Friday, those who arrived early were invited to John Berky's house for an informal gathering. Several people took advantage of the visit to stock up on some recent CDs and videos. At 6:30, activities shifted to the Windsor 75 Restaurant where the party had a special room where we could order from the restaurant's varied menu. The owner of the restaurant even went out and purchased a DVD player for the event and we played the recently re-released Sony video of Celibidache conducting the Bruckner 8th. We were having such a good time that we actually got to see the whole performance! The gathering also gave John Berky an opportunity to transfer a full carload of supplies (wine, bread, soda, beer, to Ken Jacobson's car for transport to his house in Simsbury. The next morning at 6:30AM, John was off to Simsbury with a second full carload including everything from CDs, DVD & Blu Ray discs for the performances, to coffee makers, lunch platters, homemade zucchini bread and lemon bars, milk and sixty pounds of ice and signage. In essence, (with the exception of the evening lasagna & salad) everything consumed during the 16 hour listening session (breakfast, lunch and dinner) was conveyed from Windsor to Simsbury. The listening session began at 8:15AM and continued with just one pause for dinner at 7PM. During the luncheon, Bruckner's Quintet for Strings (in a string orchestra arrangement) was played. Since the videos would be better seen after dark, the Symphonies Nos. 6 and 5 were played later in the day. We also had an opportunity (courtesy of John Proffitt) to listen to a special 4 channel sound recording of the Houston Symphony Orchestra - conducted by Hans Graf. The performances concluded at 11:15PM. As is a tradition, a special Brucknerathon cake was delivered by John's wife, Marjory just before dinner. Also, William Carragan provided timed analysis sheets for several recordings which allowed listeners to understand the inner workings of the symphonies as they were played. We were all grateful to Bill for these carefully prepared worksheets. The Jacobsons' home provided a wonderful setting for the listening sessions with a large and comfortable listening room, a large video screen, a convenient dining area and an outside deck for casual conversations. Our thanks to Ken and Ruth for sharing their home. John provided the official 2012 tee-shirts as well as CDs, LPs and books that had been amassed as samples during the year. | ||||||
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Brucknerathon Playlist - 2012 | |||
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Neil Schore's Review of the East & West Coast Events | |||
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Photo Gallery | |||
