SOMM Recordings is pleased to release Volume 3 in it's "major commemorative series" (ConcertoNet. Com) Bruckner from the Archives. Many of the expertly restored and remastered recordings, like these performances of the Third and Fourth Symphonies, are appearing for the first time in any form.

Conceived and designed by SOMM Executive Producer and acclaimed Audio Restoration Engineer Lani Spahr with support from the Bruckner Society of America, Bruckner from the Archives celebrates the 200th anniversary of the composer's birth in 1824 with rare archival recordings of the 11 symphonies and selected other important works. These have been sourced by Lani Spahr from the more than 11, 000 Bruckner performances in the Archive of John F. Berky, Executive Secretary of the Bruckner Society of America, who also acts as Consultant for this important series.

This third instalment offers live radio broadcasts of Bruckner's Symphony No. 3 by the NDR Symphony Orchestra under Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt (1966) and Symphony No. 4 by the Munich Philharmonic under Volkmar Andreae (1958).

These never-before-heard interpretations from the Bruckner symphonic canon offer a new perspective on these much-loved works, particularly as they are accompanied by the very latest in scholarship about the works' genesis in the context of Bruckner's life and compositional development, written by Professor Benjamin Korstvedt, President of the Bruckner Society of America and member of the Editorial Board of the New Anton Bruckner Complete Edition.

Prof. Korstvedt commends the Brucknerian pedigree of Schmidt-Isserstedt and the NDR SO, an orchestra built by the conductor and led by him for two decades after the Second World War. They in fact had given the very first performances of the Oeser Edition of the Third shortly after it's publication in 1950.

So, too, Swiss composer-conductor Volkmar Andreae, who was a leading Bruckner advocate: by the end of his career he had led more than 250 Bruckner performances. This recording of the Fourth, from 1958 with the Munich Philharmonic, is typical Andreae: characterful, at times fiery and passionate, at others deeply expressive, but always keenly alive to the richly varied content and moods of the music.

Lani Spahr's previous SOMM releases include the lauded four-volume sets Vaughan Williams Live (ARIADNE 5016, 5018-20) and Elgar Remastered (SOMMCD 261-4), as well as Elgar from America, Volume 3 (Ariadne 5015-2), which garnered a Gramophone Editor's Choice for "superb audio restorations [bringing] performances fully to life".

Praise for Volume One and critical interest in the Series:

Gramophone Editor's Choice (June 2024) [EMBARGOED UNTIL 22 MAY]

"We look forward to the next editions in the series; to further uplifting recordings and to new light, shed on a composer we thought we knew. "?The Quarterly Review: Endnotes, May 2024

"This is an auspicious launch of what promises to be a Bruckner series of uncommon interest. "?John Quinn, Music Web International

Volume One: ARIADNE 5025-2 · Volume Two: ARIADNE 5027-2