Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 8

Starring: Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Zubin Mehta Director: Barrie Gavin Dvd Release: 4th March, 2002 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: PAL, Region 2 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. Posters Of Anton Bruckner

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.

Listening to Bruckner’s monumental Eighth Symphony, here running some 88 minutes, is like scaling Everest. The summit doesn’t come into sight until well into the third, slow movement, then it’s not until the third approach via other vistas that we arrive with a clash of cymbals at the peak. En route there are diversions into Alpine meadows where it’s not too fanciful to suggest an Edelweiss is in flower.

Zubin Mehta recorded Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony early on in his career but neither his name nor that of this orchestra has been much associated with the Austrian composer. It was therefore something of a gamble for ArtHaus to release this 1987 performance. Mehta pleads & cajoles his orchestra to give of their all, but ultimately the demands of the music & the unsympathetic acoustic of the Alte Oper Frankfurt defeat them.

The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at key moments isn’t always playing as one in a symphony where there are so many entries that require a unison response. One senses that the conductor’s forward pacing of the music takes its toll on the precision within the huge waves of sound Bruckner launches throughout the work. Anxiety brings with it the wrong sort of tension, so that when the music drops into one of the pastoral episodes there’s little sense that we’ve moved into gentler terrain despite the heroic efforts of the principal flautist to add a scenic diversion.

The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is the leading symphony orchestra in Israel & one of the top orchestras in the world. Originally the Palestine Orchestra, it was founded by violinist Bronislaw Huberman in 1936, at a time when many Jewish musicians were being fired from European orchestras. Its inaugural concert took place in Tel-Aviv on December 26, 1936 & was conducted by Arturo Toscanini. The IPO enjoys frequent international tours & has hosted some of the worlds greatest conductors. Particularly associated with the orchestra are conductors Leonard Bernstein & Zubin Mehta. The former maintained close ties with the orchestra from 1947, while the latter has served as its Music Director since 1968. As of 1992, the composers most frequently performed by the IPO were Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Tchaikovsky & Mendelssohn. The orchestra maintains a de facto ban on Wagner s work, due to his anti-semitism & the association of his music with Nazi Germany.   Posters Of Anton Bruckner

Editors Choice: Anton Bruckner, Symphony No 8, View DVDology

Zubin Mehta is an internationally renowned conductor of European classical music. Zubin Mehta was born into an aristocratic Parsi family. His father Mehli Mehta was a violinist & founding conductor of the Bombay Symphony Orchestra. Zubin initially intended to study medicine, but eventually became a music student in Vienna at the age of 18, under the eminent instructor Hans Swarowsky. In 1958, he made his conducting debut in Vienna. The same year he won the International Conducting Competition in Liverpool & was appointed assistant conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Mehta soon rose to the rank of chief conductor when he was made Music Director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra in 1960, a post he held until 1967. Musical Director the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra ; the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, becoming the longest holder of the latter post. He has conducted the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra since 1970 & was made its Music Director for Life in 1981. Additionally since 1998, he has been Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. Posters Of Anton Bruckner

Editors Choice: Johann Strauss Gala, Anton Bruckner, Symphony No 8, View DVDology

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