Orchestral
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Review: Bruckner: Symphony No 8 (Australian World Orchestra)

Ever the perfectionist, Bruckner left two versions of his Eighth Symphony – the last symphony he completed. After his “artistic father” Hermann Levi rejected the first version, Bruckner spent three years revising the work. In this performance by the Australian World Orchestra, recorded live in the Sydney Opera House’s Concert Hall in 2015, Sir Simon Rattle uses Robert Haas’s 1939 edition – a hybrid that incorporates elements from both of Bruckner’s versions. The Haas version has remained popular, conductors like Karajan and Haitink continuing to use it even after Leopold Nowak released his more authentic scholarly editions of the symphony in 1972. From the shimmering violins and brooding basses of the opening, Rattle leads the AWO through a mammoth symphony, which has attracted the nickname Apocalyptic – a moniker that captures the scope if not quite the atmosphere of the work. The two-plus-three “Bruckner rhythm” – given so much motivic weight in the composer’s Seventh – sweeps through the strings in the first movement while the descending figures, like pealing-bells in the Scherzo are flowing and expansive under magically shimmering strings. The AWO’s brass and timpani conjure vast landscapes that fade away again into solitude. The Adagio… Continue reading Get…

January 30, 2017