When did Bruckner finish his Symphony No 8?
When did Bruckner finish his Symphony No 8?
The orchestration of the work took Bruckner until April 1887 to complete; during this stage of composition, the order of the inner movements was reversed, leaving the Scherzo second and the Adagio as the third movement. In September 1887, Bruckner had the score copied and sent to conductor Hermann Levi.
Which is the slowest of Bruckner’s three symphonies?
Barenboim’s reading is the slowest of the three, and he encourages a weightier, sustained legato that seems better suited to the sound world of the final three symphonies. Strangely, Nelsons’ tempo choices in the eighth symphony are less convincing.
How tall is the tuba in the Bruckner symphony?
The tuba solo (7’34”) has delightful character, while the final climax is powerful without the teutonic weight brought to this music by Karajan (Berlin) and Tennstedt (London).
Who was at the Musikverein with Bruckner?
And while the Musikverein was full of the great and good, including Johannes Brahms, Hugo Wolf and Johann Strauss, and with Bruckner’s partisan supporters out in force, the naysayers were there as well.
What did Brahms think of Bruckner’s symphony?
Brahms thought of Bruckner’s works as “symphonic boa-constrictors”, and the critic Eduard Hanslick – who left before the symphony’s finale – wrote grudgingly, “In each of the four movements, especially the first and third, some interesting passages, flashes of genius, shine through – if only the rest of it was not there!
What do you think of Bruckner as a composer?
If you think of Bruckner only as a creator of symphonic cathedrals of mindful – or mindless, according to taste – spiritual contemplation, who wields huge chunks of musical material around like an orchestral stone mason with implacable, monumental perfection, then you won’t hear the profoundly disturbing drama of what he’s really up to.
What did Hugo Wolf say about the Bruckner symphony?
Hugo Wolf wrote to a friend that the symphony was “the work of a giant” that “surpasses the other symphonies of the master in intellectual scope, awesomeness, and greatness”. The symphony was slow to enter the orchestral repertoire. Only two further performances occurred during Bruckner’s lifetime.
