Octo_Russ

Bruckner - Symphony 8 [Skrowaczewski-Saarbrucken Radio Symphony Orchestra]

Here's Bruckner's Eighth again, i'm loving this Symphony more and more, and it's good to give a different version a spin.

The Polish born Stanislav Skrowaczewski has recorded a full Bruckner cycle for the Oehms label, considered excellent.

The Eighth Symphony is Bruckner's longest, this performance is just over 82 minutes, only just spilling onto a second disc, interestingly the booklet cover calls it his 'Apocalyptic', i don't know where this name came from, but it surely wasn't from Bruckner, i started a discussion on this on a Classical Music Forum.

Again i was so moved by the mammoth Adagio third movement, on this recording it's almost half an hour long!, longer than a lot of whole Symphonies!, Bruckner's ideas are caressed over a huge canvas, like a vast forest, it's easy to get stuck on each individual tree, and miss the grand architecture of the whole forest, it needs to be listened to dozens of times to gain an understanding of its overall sweep, the very opening is just simply gorgeous, gentle throbbing waves on the lower strings, and then the main tune, on slightly higher strings [0:17+], this becomes the Symphonies 'idee fixe', returning again and again, each time to caress us, it's so hard not to point out the beauty of every tree in Bruckner's forest, as this review will just simply be too long, but i marvel at these opening minutes, Bruckner is a phenomenal genius, in this Symphony he uses a harp, and very effective it is too [2:47-3:18], sometimes the smallest ideas and bends in the road are just overwhelming, how Bruckner sews all his separate ideas together into a cogent quilt is amazing, i like the horns that quietly soothe out of the string mists [7:22-7:47], and the sheer triumphal blaze of glory that starts moments later, but is cut short [8:18-8:28], the 'idee fixe' opening returns [9:41+], this time with more agitation, and with the horns in tow, a very nice variation, it isn't all a soothing mammoth Adagio, there's passion and vigour aplenty, and decibels too!, out of nowhere Bruckner can pull an endearing phrase / section, one such is a short string serenade [19:38-19:55], sweet and gentle, so soothing, an oasis of extra beauty in the middle of something that's already very beautiful, and later a triumphal fanfare of glory [21:57-22:24], but to top it all off, there's this sublime long coda, starting at [23:52+], i could write pages about this, it's the best thing Bruckner ever did, the sad clarinet refrain [24:03-24:40], with the gentle horns in the middle [24:28+], so endearingly nostalgic, and the horns and strings play this heartbreaking duet [25:39+], the final notes are so sad but yet so beautiful, how can anyone not be a devotee of Bruckner after this?, Skrowaczewski gives us a superb rendition, excellently recorded. 

Here's the third movement conducted by Eschenbach on YouTube.