Octo_Russ

Bruckner - Symphony 8 [Haitink-Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam]

Here's Bruckner's Eighth again, roughly 86 minutes of genius, it's his longest Symphony, and the Adagio alone can hit the half hour mark!, this is a Symphony that i had an exerted effort to really get to know deeper in 2009, i bought a few recordings, and i listened to it more than ever, it paid dividends, now it's my second favourite Symphony by Bruckner.

Bernard Haitink seems to be appearing in my Blog a bit more, i enjoyed his Shostakovich last week [8th November 2010], he's now 81, and he looks quite frail at the moment.

On every listen of a disc, i try to find something new and exciting to see / hear, and i noticed very much the harp this time, especially in the quiet trio section of the Scherzo second movement, but again i find that the long and beautiful Adagio is heartbreaking, i would just like to mention a few really lovely inspiring moments, the horns bring a certain glow to the Adagio, they steal in from nowhere [7:12-7:38], the sheer beauty of their playing is breathtaking, with shimmering violins in the background, it's a moment that stands out for me on this listen, later the horns repeat the same trick [15:11-15:37], golden autumnal horns, with shimmering violins, if something's so good, why not use it twice?, later in the movement the strings have their glorious moment of beauty [20:37+], such sweetness, and surge again a tad later [20:49+], a nice touch by Bruckner, and right at the end comes the supreme and sublime coda [24:31+], there's so many good things to notice in these last four minutes, it's my most favourite moment in any Bruckner Symphony, there's the clarinet in the background [25:10+ & 25:30], almost like a peaceful last rites / last post, and the horns very gently humming the opening tune [25:20+], now in all its autumn colours, and the mid strings echo the clarinet sadness [25:43+ & 25:57+], a stupendous moment, but then it's topped by the most touching string / horn duet you will ever hear [26:42+], the music becomes lost in its own beauty for the next minute or so, as Bruckner closes this gorgeous string & horn duet in such a noble fashion, is there anything more lovely than this?, i posed this question on Talk Classical, a Classical music discussion forum, especially about Barenboim's version of this i played over seven months ago [30th March 2010].

Here's Bernard Haitink conducting the third movement Adagio on YouTube.