My attempts to track down the missing first movement
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The dilemma: How does one find the missing movement from a recording that was made forty years ago when the conductor was a pseudonym, the orchestra was a "pick-up" ensemble, and you don't know made the recording?
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As discussed in other parts of this discography, the recordings produced by Alfred Scholz have created a great deal of confusion as to the orchestra used and the conductors who led this ensemble.
It is important to understand what Scholz had in mind for these recordings. They were to be offered to record producers for low budget releases (supermarket sales, etc.) It was Scholz's hope to license these recordings more than once so he soon began to use pseudonyms for the conductors (real names and imaginary) and a few other names for the orchestra just to keep his catalog unique to his buyers. Of course, it is entirely possible that the record manufacturers changed the names as well. Scholz set up studios in Schloss Klessheim, near Salzburg. While the conductors seem to vary, just about all of the records offer the South German Philharmonic as the ensemble. It is believed that most of the musicians employed in this "pick-up" orchestra were members of the Czech Philharmonic who were able to travel to Austria during the temporary political thaw in the 1960's. When these musicians were no longer able to travel, other local musicians may have been substituted.
The difficulty with the Bruckner Symphony No. 9 is that an error was made in the mastering soon after the recording sessions. Recordings in the 1960's were usually mastered on open reel tape at 38 cm./sec. (15 inches/sec.) Hubs of tape were usually 1000 meters in length thus giving the recording engineer approximately 43 minutes of recording time per reel. It was common practice in recording works the length of a Bruckner symphony to place one movement on one reel of tape. For this Bruckner 9th, there would have been three reels. Apparantly, during the mastering process, the engineer got confused and created the "running master tape" incorrectly, accidently substituting the 3rd movement for the first movement and then re-using the 3rd movement again at the conclusion. This error would have occured back in the 1960's. It is unimaginable that the orchestra neglected to record the first movement. It was certainly recorded, but apparently it has never seen the light of day after the recording session.
What is surprising is that no one seems to catch the error at this early stage. The recording was subsequently released on a Euphoria LP with the incorrect movement sequence. It later showed up on a Highland LP and cassette with the incorrect sequence and finally (in the 1990's) it was released on a Point CD in the incorrect sequence. The Point recording (catalog No. 265010-2) featured the Suddeutsche Philharmonie conducted by "Cesare Cantieri." Several year ago, I contacted Point Classics (in Malibu, California) and advised them of the error. They eventually repaired the error by re-issuing the CD (under the same catalog number) with the Evgeny Mravinsky / Leningrad Philharmonic recording that was made on January 30, 1980. This recording has also shown up on several different labels. Point went so far as to place the new artists on the CD cover, but the back tray card continued to offer Cantieri as the conductor and offered the original movement timings.
Recently, I contacted Point Classics again since their website (that allows one to sample the files offered for licensing) continued to have the III-II-III sequencing error. I spoke with a very cooperative young woman who recognized the problem and promised to check with their archivist in Germany about the missing movement. A few days later, she wrote back with the startling news that they had the first movement! While the recording was being transferred, discussion began concerning my ability to license the recordings for a limited release to Bruckner enthusiasts. When the recording arrived; however, all enthusiasm faded when it turned out that the Bruckner 9th first movement recording was that performed by Mravinsky. She then advised me that the library that Point Classics purchased had all been digitized back in the '90's and that no analogue tapes were available to them.
So the quest continues. The problem is that this recording was not done by a pre-existing record company (such as DGG or EMI) so there is no place to look for the original masters - if they still exist. There is no data available that says where these recordings were made and which company originally recorded them. There is no official conductor and no official orchestra to contact, so until we find some more leads, it appears that the first movement from the Alfred Scholz Bruckner Ninth will not be heard. I suspect that it has not been heard since it was first recorded about forty years ago.
John F. Berky
December 19, 2005
