Bruckner: Symphony 8 in C Minor

Bruckner par excellence
Franz Welser-Möst's Cleveland Bruckner series continues with a majestic recording of the Eighth, captured in splendid sound and video in Severance Hall and based on the second (1887) Leopold Nowak edition. The latter is unusual in itself, as most modern performances use either the Robert Haas or the earlier Nowak edition with cuts and drastic changes in the orchestration. Thus, Welser-Möst's choice restores the score in all its glory of 90 minutes duration as close as possible to the composer's intentions. And a glorious performance it is! Welser-Möst is perhaps the greatest living Bruckner interpreter alongside Christian Thielemann. For Welser-Möst, Bruckner clearly is his heart and soul. When you sit down with this disk, be prepared to spend the next ninety minutes in rapt attention, as the Cleveland audience does. This is Bruckner par excellence, with ideal tempi, an uncanny attention to detail as well as to the multiple dynamic shades, the different layers of...

BUT: Buyer beware!!
Of course this music and the documentaries are excellent on all three programs: Bruckner's Eighth Symphony, Mahler's Fifth, and Beethoven's Fifth. But this is not a review, but a warning:

The labels are wrong on two of mine. Bruckner says Bruckner but is Beethoven, and the Beethoven says Beethoven but is Bruckner. This was to be a gift, but as usual, the parent company simply can't get much right.Amazon simply does not check their merchandise, even though it's the manufacturer's fault. Always use Marketplace sellers whenever you can. I'm so tired of writing hate mail to Amazon.

Never again!

A masterpiece
I don't know who to praise more, the brilliant Austrian conductor Franz Welser-Most, or the "always surprising" Cleveland Symphony.

Not to mention the composer, Anton Bruckner. His eighth symphony is a masterpiece: some people view it as the devout Bruckner having a conversation with God. That may or may not be true, but it is well worth listening in on the conversation.

The DVD is riveting, and it's one of the finest I own.

I would like to hear from the Bruckner experts, however --- what is their opinion of this performance as opposed to the one on the Karajan boxed set of the complete Bruckner symphonies?

Click to Editorial Reviews