Letter from NYC (37) 2014 (9): Bruckner in Blu Ray and Scotch

Written in HK

When was the last time you visited an audiophile and he played you a huge symphony? Never, right?

Well, miraculously, it did happen during my stay in NYC. Thanks to my friend Andy, I got to re-visit his friends in upstate NY and our friend Mark drove. You may remember Milty (last visit) who again treated us with a rather full glass of mid-morning scotch and lunch of excellent bread, pastrami and corned beef. Yum!

Milty played us Barenboim's new Bruckner 7th. The Blu Ray disc was played in his Oppo player. Sound was very good, but what surprised me was the wonderfully organic performance, surely Baremboim's best, better than his performances in the BPO (Warner) and CSO (DG) cycles. The sonority of the Berlin Staaskapelle is simply breathtaking. I have always loved this orchestra's recordings with Otmar Suitner, and now they are in the good hands of Barenboim. What pleasure!

We then re-visited Lao Tang, where we were treated again to an excellent dinner. A fine day!

p.s. For Bruckner fans, I accidentally came across this funny article: Anton Bruckner makes me lose the will to live!

Also, I highly recommend this last recording of Abbado.