It seems like Celibidache’s fans and critics agree broadly on what he is doing but they disagree wildly about whether the results are special or simply too much. As I have shared, I am fairly new to Bruckner, and this was my first time listening closely to Celibidache through an “entire” symphony. Yes, he’s slow, all right, but this performance is live, and the slow tempo works for me here, in terms of the way it loads the venue, also in terms of the interplay and the development of the many threads in this fascinating and awe-inspiring symphony. C actually uses the slow pace to effectively “create space”, which for me only reinforces a sense I have had about Bruckner’s symphonies since I first really heard them, that they are “Celestial”, also that Bruckner is reverent. David Hurwitz has said that Germans like “secular worship”, and he says that they find this in Bruckner’s Music, and that Celibidache feeds into and off this phenomenon.  Speaking for myself, more power to Celibidache on this score; for me, it’s a plus, as he really puts me “in the mood” with this B9. I am glad I added this performance to my B9 collection; however, I offer a caveat: The CD here is labeled “Exclusive EX92T23/24”, which includes Celibidache’s B4 with Stuttgart Rundfunk, and this 9^th. As near as I can tell, this CD is a bootleg, with scant information provided with the discs, and there is no noted provenance. The level 1 sound is not good, but I get most of the Music that matters. I wish I had spent more time filtering the many choices for Celibidache’s B9 performances and recordings, as there are many similar but not the same; but I’m glad I got to hear it via my Big Rig.

Paul S

dady wrote:

Hello everyone, the series of that Rundfunk symphony from Stuttgart and I think they are from a different label than the one he used when he was last married with his own orchestra here were from EMI and already had the label of his Zen Buddhism. The other day I received those from the Deutsche Gramophon from Stuttgart and I have only heard the octave which has a tempo that is quite slower than the usual ones. But something that the great Sergiu did was to thin out the music so that it could be experienced in all its extension, both in the volumes as well as in the emphasis of making one group of instruments shine over another. Enjoy it, my friend.

Romy the Cat wrote:

dady wrote: Hello everyone, the series of that Rundfunk symphony from Stuttgart and I think they are from a different label than the one he used when he was last married with his own orchestra here were from EMI and already had the label of his Zen Buddhism. The other day I received those from the Deutsche Gramophon from Stuttgart and I have only heard the octave which has a tempo that is quite slower than the usual ones. But something that the great Sergiu did was to thin out the music so that it could be experienced in all its extension, both in the volumes as well as in the emphasis of making one group of instruments shine over another. Enjoy it, my friend. I do not particularly feel that Celibidache was a genius but I certainly feel that he was genius in Anton Bruckner. I heard some of his recordings of none Brucner and it was not so special. Some of the things he did with Bruckner are completely transcendent. For instance with all my appreciation of B7 I almost felt that the 3rd movement is so light and so stupidly dancing that it should not be in that symphony. Celibidache in one of his recordings completely reversed my view. He typically plays slow but in that specific performance, it was probably  63367842 times slower than he typically does it. And it was absolutely majestic. That stupid repetitive nature kind of gun because you do not remember what was 10 minutes ago, and that whole moment was like a hole independent symphony is that you wish never stop. I remember when the first time hurt I was mesmerized and I truly feel it was absolutely new world in the Bruckner musicology. But I need to admit, is it I generally have very heavy bias for music play significantly slower then it is. I even have my Denon DJ CD player, that sounds horribly but that allowed to adjust is the speed of the play. Sometimes I'm deeply intentionally play some music mach, mach slower. I even fantasized to have an options to reduce the speed of CD playing resolve to reducing the pitch...