Bruckner's Eighth Symphony is a journey from darkness
to light, and it cost him the greatest artistic and emotional strain
of any of his works. Just as the dark visions of the first movement
are eventually overcome by the blazing peroration of the finale, so
the process of the work's composition overcame conflicts whose magnitude
tore at the heart of his inner creative assurance.
In 1884 the Symphony No. 7 had been triumphantly received, first in
Leipzig under the direction of Artur Nikisch, then in Munich under Hermann
Levi, whose performance Bruckner particularly admired. At last the composer
felt that wider recognition awaited him, and his works were gaining
performances across Europe and in America. Thus it was that when he
completed the epic Symphony No. 8 in 1887, he sent the score to Levi,
whom he called his 'artistic father'.
However, Levi found that the new work eluded his complete understanding,
and his equivocal response to the score sent Bruckner into a deep depression,
bordering on breakdown. He set about revising not only this score but
also the existing versions of his earlier symphonies, with the result
that a second, ‘final’, version of the Eighth appeared in
1890. The differences included a new coda for the first movement and
a new trio for the
Scherzo, structural changes in the
Adagio
and finale, and considerable re-scoring.
This new Hänssler recording from Gerd Schaller and the Philharmonie
Festiva is particularly interesting therefore, since it deals with Bruckner’s
thoughts as they progressed along the journey from the 1887 version
to the 1890 version. The latter was given in Vienna under Hans Richter
in 1892, and was the premiere performance of whichever version of the
symphony.
William Carragan has done as much as anyone in recent years to enhance
our knowledge and understanding of Bruckner and the various editions
of his symphonies. It is he who has assembled this score of variants
of each movement from circa 1888. The description as listed with the
CDs is very careful and particular: ‘Variant of 1888’: it
is not a finalised version of the score from that time. Carragan is
at pains to point out that we are dealing with work in progress as far
as the individual movements are concerned, rather than a version of
the symphony as a whole. Therefore this remains a snapshot of Bruckner's
work in progress, not a finished edition of the score.
That said, Gerd Schaller conducts an altogether rewarding performance.
Tempi always feel absolutely appropriate, with contrasts powerfully
drawn and phrasing and dynamics sensitively handled. The orchestra,
the Philharmonie Festiva, is very much of Schaller’s making, created
in 2008 for his summer festival at Ebrach and comprising musicians from
the leading ensembles in Bavaria. No wonder the playing standards are
so high.
This is a live performance from the abbey church of Ebrach, whose acoustic
suits Bruckner well. The resonance is warm but not as cavernous as some
church acoustics. The recorded sound is atmospheric and pleasing, with
a well balanced range of dynamics. The winds, and especially the oboes,
are placed somewhat forward, although they are not excessively spot-lit.
Anyone who knows either version of the symphony - that is, from either
1887 or 1890 - will recognise the similarities of Bruckner’s symphonic
journey as found here, while the differences when they arrive make a
sometimes startling impression. The musical line hardly wavers, and
if one immediately begins to think that the composer’s first or
last thoughts were best, a natural enough assumption, such considerations
need be tempered by the realisation that if we know and love a work
we tend to do so with expectations that we have built up over a period
of time, often from repeatedly listening to a single performance.
On the whole this Variant of the Eighth Symphony is closer to 1887 than
to 1890. Thus the first movement concludes fortissimo, not the hushed
Totenuhr close that Bruckner decided on later. Nor is there the
new trio as in the 1890 scherzo movement. The great climax of the extensive
Adagio third movement very much feels as if it is ‘work
in progress’, though it still makes its powerful mark. Above all,
the same is true of the finale’s conclusion, since in this ‘variant’
sonority seems to triumph over the powerful logic of a great symphonic
peroration that is the composer’s ultimate achievement in this
magnificent and wonderful symphony.
As makeweight to the main agenda there is a tribute to Bruckner by Otto
Kitzler father and son, ‘
Trauermusik, Dem Andenken Anton Bruckners’.
Bruckner admitted that no-one helped him learn more about the techniques
of orchestration than Kitzler senior, so this is certainly an appropriate
appendage to the recording of the symphony. Written around 1906, the
score was orchestrated with the assistance of Kitzler’s son, while
the present performance is in a sensitively drawn re-orchestration by
the conductor, Gerd Schaller. Inevitably this invites a certain disappointment,
but the results are very successful, being wholly sensitive to the work
of the fine musicians involved.
Terry Barfoot
Masterwork Index:
Bruckner
8
