The 2014 Brucknerathon: A Report
Attendees were invited to my home in Windsor, Connecticut on Friday afternoon. About 12 people attended and due to the suddenly hot and steamy weather, decided to stay indoors for the afternoon. As guests arrived, the new Harnoncourt / Concertgebouw Blu-Ray disc of the Bruckner Symphony No. 5 was playing for all to critique. At 6:30PM, those with and without vehicles matched up to travel the short distance to the Windsor 75 Restaurant in downtown Windsor. We had an area of the restaurant all to ourselves and a very efficient waitress allowed the group (now grown to 18) to order off of their varied menu with separate checks. Every attendee was given an abruckner.com glass beer stein as a memento. During the dinner, a presentation was made to Ken Jacobson, who has been hosting the event at his home in Simsbury for all six years. The Bruckner Society of America, whose board of directors always makes a strong showing at the Brucknerathon, commissioned Ken Ward of the UK (and Editor of the Bruckner Journal) to prepare another of his highly prized Bruckner busts as a gift to Ken and Ruth for their continued hospitality. While Ken offers his home and his wonderful stereo / video system, I am responsible for everything else, so after dinner, a carload of provisions (cases of wine, soda, water and non-perishable food items, plates, glasses, utensils, etc.) was transferred to Ken's car from mine thus giving me room for another carload the next morning. Most attendees then returned to the Hyatt Hotel in Windsor to rest up for the day ahead. Since the listening session was scheduled to begin at 8AM, I was up at 5AM to begin loading perishable food items into my car. This included trays of breakfast breads, trays of luncheon meats, bread and baked goods, apples, condiments, and 60 pounds of ice. Also signage and coffee makers were transported along with the all-important box of CDs, SACDs and video recordings. All was set up for an on-time start beginning with the Symphony in F Minor. (See complete playlist below) Every attendee received a postcard with a painting of Anton Bruckner on it. It was signed by the British artist, David Cheepen. For the listening event, our ranks had grown to twenty. As has become a tradition, William Carragan gave all attendees a timed-anaysis of most of the recordings presented. To use it, a large stop clock was placed at the front of the listening room. We broke a little after noon for lunch. Normally, we eat outdoors, but the weather was unusually hot and oppressive so we set up tables in Ruth Jacobson's art studio. It was cool and comfortable and there was plenty of her interesting and colorful artwork to catch the eye. Listening commenced at 1PM and continued until a little after 6PM (with the playing of the Symphony No. 9). While the symphonies are played in chronological sequence, several video presentations - this year the Symphonies 2, 6 and 5 were set for screening after dinner when the room could be darkened. One of the highlights this year was a surround sound recording of the Symphony No. 8 which had just been performed at St. Florian on August 22nd. The recording was engineered by John Proffitt was in attendance. The recording will be released by Gramola later this year. During the Symphony No. 9, Ruth and I drove to a nearby restaurant to pick up trays of meat and vegetable lasagna, salad and focaccia bread. My wife, Marjory showed up just before dinner with the traditional Brucknerathon-logoed layer cake for dessert. All told, over the course of two days, our hearty band consumed $700.00 in food and drinks including many bottles of an excellent Leipzig beer which, as two Bruckner Society members discovered, is the specialty of the house at the home of Kurt Masur. Dinner was held outside thanks to a break in the weather and since the conversations were robust, the listening session resumed about 40 minutes late. Some quick turnarounds during the video presentations brought us to a conclusion at 11:15 PM. Many weary souls departed for the hotel (or home) soon afterwards. My car and Marjory's car were loaded up for the return trip and my day came to an end around 1AM. As always, my thanks to the Jacobsons and my wife for putting up with this annual excessive near-birthday tribute to our beloved Anton. Thanks also to those intrepid Brucknerians who travelled far and wide to attend this event. If Bruckner could only know what he has wrought, he would be very happy. Sunday morning was devoted to the Annual Meeting of the Board of the Bruckner Society of America. A report on that meeting can be found here. |
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Photos from the 2014 Brucknerathon | |||
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Brucknerathon Listening Schedule (Saturday) | |||
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The 2014 Brucknerathon Playlist | |||
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Past Bruckneraton playlists (2009 - 2013) | |||
