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Newsletter - March 1, 2026

Newsletter - March 1, 2026

Newsletter - March 1, 2026
Welcome to the Newsletter from Abruckner.com!

As of February 28 the Discography Database and the Bruckner Archive Database have been updated. The underlined headlines below will take you to the various sections of the website where the bullet points below are featured. Please use these as guides to the new information offered since the last newsletter.

Newsletter - March 1, 2026

Last month, I wrote the following:

At present, I am in the process of digitizing hundreds of recordings that are here. I will be spending most of my time in February making sure that every known recording is stored on a digital platform. Besides it's too cold right now to do anything outside!

I am happy to report that the digitization process at my end has been completed. Over 10,700 Bruckner performances have been preserved on my computer and several backup hard drives. Over the next year or so, the Austrian Media Library will continue the digitization of my donated recordings and copies will come back to me in digital form. This will ensure that the archive of recordings will exist in both Europe and the USA.

Digitizing of recordings might sound like an odd process to pursue, but libraries and archives throughout the world have come to understand its importance. Over time, LP records become brittle and can scratch, 78 rpm discs can break, open reel, cassette and R-DAT tapes can deteriorate and the machines that play them can become scarce. CD and DVDs can deteriorate over time as well. Digitizing recordings has several advantages. It can save enormous amounts of space, recordings can be quickly accessed and backed up on several hard drives or servers to ensure safety and they will always be easily converted to whatever new systems of playback that are currently in use. For my process, all recordings are stored using lossless FLAC files.

At this time, I would like to give thanks to Naxos, Pristine Classics and Hi Definition Tape Transfers for their help in this process. They gave me access to their files and allowed me to download files quickly rather than ripping audio off of CDs. It saved many hours of work.







Any donations will appear on your credit card statement as "Charter Oak Recordings."


Another area of continued activity for me is The Bruckner Society of America The Society was founded in 1931 and was very active through the 1960’s. But things slowed down and the Society became inactive after the last publication of “Chord and Discord” in 1998. In 2009, the Society’s last president, Charles Eble passed away and some of his business passed to David Hempel. I contacted David and together we were able to restore the Society’s non-profit status and allowed the Society to access its dormant assets.

Since then, we have restructured the Board of Directors and have resumed the bestowing of the Julio Kilenyi Medal of Honor to deserving individuals. Some of the more recent recipients, since our reactivation have been William Carragan, Benjamin Korstvedt, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Kurt Masur, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Daniel Barenboim, Hans Graf, Riccardo Chailly, Jaap van Zweden, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Gerd Schaller and Herbert Blomstedt. In 2026, plans are in place to present medals of honor to Fabio Luisi in Dallas and Manfred Honeck in Pittsburgh.

In addition to this activity, the Society has adopted “The Bruckner Journal” as its print / online publication. The Society also offers its own line of compact discs. In the future, the Society will also maintain the Bruckner Symphony Versions Discography, which is the centerpiece of this website.

You can support all of this activity and receive access to "The Bruckner Journal" by becoming a member of the Bruckner Society of America. Donations can be made online at the Society's website.

LATEST NEWS AND POSTINGS

  • Any news about Bruckner that reaches my desk is posted here. After a while, interesting stories are moved to the FEATURES SECTION (below).


THE BRUCKNER ARCHIVE

  • The Bruckner Archive recording database (with over 10,700 listings) has been updated and it is easy to download as an Excel file. Many of these recordings are available to collectors and researchers. Contact me for details on how you can fill in some holes in your collection. The database is fully sortable including the ability to sort by performance date.

    As noted above, I have now added the "Pre-Donation" datafile which reflects what was held in the Archive prior to the donation of recordings to the Austrian National Library.


EDITOR'S SECTION

  • There are many subjects covered here. While the topics remain relatively static, the sections themselves are frequently updated, so make it a point to check out the various subjects under this heading.


NEW AND FEATURED RELEASES

  • A listing of new releases and exclusive recordings - many currently available in my webstore.


FUTURE RELEASES AND RECENT DISCOVERIES

  • A listing of future releases and recordings that have recently been discovered.


DOWNLOADS

  • A collection of wonderful downloads including scores and the always popular DOWNLOAD OF THE MONTH.


WEB STORE

  • The web store focuses on new Bruckner recordings and other Bruckner recordings that are not generally available. The store is divided up into sections for CDs and DVDs, books and scores, downloads, bargain samples and collectibles. Be sure to check out each section for new items. My focus is on new releases and hard-to-find items.



FEATURES

  • As stories in the LATEST NEWS AND POSTINGS section get older, those that are still relevant get moved into the FEATURES SECTION. There is a wealth of information here that you may have missed when they were first posted.


ARTICLES / GRAPHICS

  • Essays in English and other languages are entered as they are discovered or accepted.

  • New graphics (over 1,500) are frequently added.


PLEASE SUPPORT THIS SITE All the information provided on this site is available to you free-of-charge. But it is not free for me to get it to you. Recordings must be purchased as does the server space upon which this website is stored. There is an easy way for you to support this venture. Simply purchase recordings and other items in my web store. Purchases will support the ongoing expenses of operating this website.

Stay safe and happy listening!

John F. Berky