Bruckner: Symphony No. 8

Anton Bruckner (Artist), Riccardo Chailly (Artist), Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Artist)

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 16, 2002)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Decca
• ASIN: B0000665EV
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #350,175 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Pairing one of the world's great orchestras with one of the day's top Brucknerians produces a superb performance. Chailly's eccentricity-free Eighth glows with conviction. He achieves his results through careful attention to the score, ensuring that every telling detail makes its effect without exaggeration. He secures phenomenal playing from his orchestra, and carefully calibrates dynamics and balances. The result for the listener is to forget about the mechanics of the work and be drawn into Bruckner's message of struggle and acceptance.

Throughout, one is amazed at the power of the Concertgebouw's low brass, its spectacular wind soloists, and its deep, rich strings. Chailly doesn't overplay the climaxes, so you may find more of the work's brute force elsewhere, but you get a better sense of the work's structure than most of the competition offers. And in the long, central Adagio and the Finale, his apt phrasing and precision produce a tremendous emotional effect. The Adagio movement, in particular, comes across as deeply moving, and Chailly communicates its underlying tensions, so that, for once, its great length never seems a minute longer than it has to be. One of the great Eighths, and one of the best engineered as well. --Dan Davis

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An outstanding new recording of Bruckner's zenith, October 14, 2002

By	Bruce Hodges (New York, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Of Bruckner's work, this symphony is surely his most triumphant and moving creation. From a few simple notes in a descending scale, he creates a vast landscape alternating between quietly touching passages and those that are thrillingly immense.

Chailly and the Concertgebouw are in the midst of what appears to be a complete Bruckner cycle; they have already recorded numbers 2, 4, 5, 6, and 9. (Chailly recorded the 7th with the RSO Berlin, also excellent.) The Eighth is enormous - about 80 minutes long - and Chailly has the full measure of the work's massive structure, but takes care to allow the myriad details to come through. The half-hour long "Adagio" (for many listeners the high point of the piece) is done with great feeling and mystery, and the orchestra is as sublime as anyone could wish for. Actually, the playing everywhere is superb; take for example, the galloping, thrilling opening of the final movement. The sheer power of the orchestra will sweep you away.

As someone who greatly admires this piece, I have a number of versions, with Haitink, Tennstedt, Karajan, Furtwängler and Welser-Möst as the most interesting so far. But this excellent newcomer is self-recommending, and fits on a single disc, making it a relative bargain as well. (NB: Chailly uses the Nowak edition, for those who are interested.)

A great piece, performed by one of the finest orchestras in the world, collaborating with one of the world's great conductors. Spectacular sound to boot.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A spectacular recording, even for Chailly, May 15, 2003

By	Jonathan B Horrocks (Reston, VA United States) - See all my reviews

I am familiar with several versions of this symphony; the Chailly recording really ties this symphony together. There are certain balancing issues in previous recordings that have been handled superbly in this version, especially in the last movement. I think Chailly is generally more thoughtful than either Boulez (in Vienna) or Kubelik (in Chicago), as fine as the new Boulez recording is. [This is not the Boulez of several years ago, but that is another matter.]
Bruckner is not new music to the Concertgebouw, but this is not the heavy reading that Karajan secured in Berlin. Perhaps the second Karajan version from Vienna has not been surpassed, but for those like myself who like a clean, studio recording with a first-class orchestra (which a Bruckner recording definitely needs), this is a safe and satisfying version, beautifully played.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Impressive playing, but Chailly rarely lets himself go, July 27, 2006

By	Santa Fe listener - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

At 78 min, Chailly's Bruckner Eighth stretches the limits of a single CD--all of Karajan's magnificent readings, along with Giulini's famous one with the Vienna Phil, fit on two. It would be nice to place Chailly next to Boulez, whose one-disc recording from Vienna (DG) is revelatroy. I think Chailly's is reliable, well-balanced, magnificently played by the golden-toned Concertgebouw, but not remarkable musically.

He is averse to drama, eitther thorugh wide dynamic contrasts, sudden flashes of excitement, or emotional abandon. This is a steady-as-she-goes performance, and in that regard it was frustrating to hear Chailly hold back, time and again, when he should have charged ahead. Was this recording meant to go straight to a museum next to the stuffed auk? Even the sublime Adagio doesn't arouse Chailly to eloquence, and only the finale, which is foolproof for thrills, gets the blood flowing. In sum, a typical Chailly production, with lots to admire on the technical side but no real passion to win one's heart.