Bruckner: Symphony No. 8: Giulini

Starring: Carlo Maria Giulini Dvd Release: 13th July, 1999 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: Colour, NTSC, Region 0 Encoding

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Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer. Anton Bruckner was born in Ansfelden to a schoolmaster & organist father with whom he first studied music. He worked for a few years as a teachers assistant, fiddling at village dances at night to supplement his income. He studied at the Augustinian monastery in St. Florian, becoming an organist there in 1851. He continued his studies to the age of 40, under Simon Sechter & Otto Kitzler, the latter introducing him to the music of Richard Wagner, which Bruckner studied extensively from 1863 onwards. He had alrady in 1861 made acquaintance with Liszt who was religious like Bruckner & who first & foremost was a harmonic innovator, initiating the new german school together with Wagner. Soon after Bruckner had ended his studies under Sechter & Kitzler, he wrote his first mature work, the Mass in D Minor. He was a very devout Roman Catholic. In 1868 he accepted a post as a teacher of music theory at the Vienna Conservatory. At this point he concentrated most of his energies on writing symphonies.

The eighth symphony of the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius is one of the great mysteries of 20th century classical music. Today virtually nothing of the composition exists, with the manuscript probably having been burned by the composer in 1945. Sibelius produced his last major work in 1924, but he lived another thirty years & many think he spent much of this time working on an eighth symphony. He promised the work as early as 1930. In letters to his wife he discusses writing it; & there are records that he ordered large amounts of manuscript paper & in the mid 1930s he had a large work copied out. In 1937 there is a receipt stating that a large work had been bound. At least twice a date for the first performance of the new symphony was even announced. But after all this, the symphony never materialised. There will always be debate as to how complete it actually was. His wife recounts seeing him feeding manuscript papers into a fire in 1945 & many believe that among these papers was the completed Eighth Symphony.

Carlo Maria Giulini is a Italian conductor. Born in Barletta, he studied the viola & conducting at the Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome. He worked at Milan Radio from 1946 to 1951, where he revived a number of obscure operas, including works by Alessandro Scarlatti. A production of Joseph Haydn s Il mondo della luna was heard by Arturo Toscanini & led to him recommending Giulini for the musical directorship at La Scala, where Giulini remained from 1953 to 1956. In 1958 he conducted a highly acclaimed production of Giuseppe Verdi s Don Carlos at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, but from 1967 he largely abandoned opera, concentrating on orchestral works. He conducted the Vienna Philharmonics Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra & the Philharmonia Orchestra of London. From 1978 to 1984 he was principal conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1982 he returned to opera, conducting Verdis Falstaff His legendary recording include Verdi, Faure, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Mahler & Dvorak to name a few.

Carlo Maria Giulini is a Italian conductor. Born in Barletta, he studied the viola & conducting at the Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome. He worked at Milan Radio from 1946 to 1951, where he revived a number of obscure operas, including works by Alessandro Scarlatti. A production of Joseph Haydn s Il mondo della luna was heard by Arturo Toscanini & led to him recommending Giulini for the musical directorship at La Scala, where Giulini remained from 1953 to 1956. In 1958 he conducted a highly acclaimed production of Giuseppe Verdi s Don Carlos at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, but from 1967 he largely abandoned opera, concentrating on orchestral works. He conducted the Vienna Philharmonics Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra & the Philharmonia Orchestra of London. From 1978 to 1984 he was principal conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1982 he returned to opera, conducting Verdis Falstaff His legendary recording include Verdi, Faure, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Mahler & Dvorak to name a few.

Editors Choice: Carlo Maria Giulini In Rehearsal, Bruckner, Giulini, Symphony No 8, View DVDology

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