Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 [Import]

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 expression and the whole spectrum of emotions from the mysterious through the spiritually sublime to the ultimate confrontation with death.

This is a bluray reissue of the original 2011 dvd release which garnered much praise when it came out. I have not seen that dvd, but this new bluray is special indeed!

It is no secret that Franz Welser-Most has his own special way with Bruckner. This is the original complete Nowak (1887) version of the 8th. Symphony, taking all of 90 minutes, The fact that Welser-Most can keep its pulse intact for the whole duration, while not ignoring the nuances of a sensitive interpretation, is no mean feat, and this performance never loses its impetus.The Clevelanders are on top of their game. It's hard to single out any section - they're all brilliant in this music.

The glorious Adagio is 30 minutes of pure beauty - just exquisite. The opening fanfare of brass and timpani in the finale will make your hair stand on end, and it doesn't seem anticlimactic through the rest of the movement. The first allegro is well paced and the scherzo (not one of Bruckner's strongest, in my opinion)is played to the hilt.

Welser-Most's conducting style is restrained, but his eyes say a lot, and his arm and body movements are graceful (the polar opposite of Bernstein, say). He understands Bruckner's musical demands, and uses the reverb. time of the hall to determine his choice of tempi. The resultant audio here is wonderful - that real full "cathedral of sound" so essential to a great Bruckner performance - as opposed to the rather analytical sound with short reverb on the new Abbado/Lucerne Bruckner 5.

The video is very good but not perfect - a bit too much color saturation from some cameras (too orange). Split-screen shots are used sparingly, but effectively.

A nice touch here was the interview not only with the conductor, but with William Cosel, recording director, who has been around the block a few times when it comes to recording concerts. Cosel introduced all his cameramen individually, from their vantage points in the hall - a generous gesture. Welser-Most is always instructive in his interviews without lecturing.

The only other video I have seen of #8 is the Wand(2000) on TDK. It uses the 1890 Haas version, and also takes 90 minutes, but somehow it seems longer. Perhaps this is an old man's last attempt at the piece versus Welser-Most's more thrusting traversal.

I hope the Welser-Most ninth appears on bluray also, and it sure would be nice to get a fourth and sixth from this same source.

Well worth $30 of anybody's money!

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?