The symphonies of Bruckner are simply my favourite music of all time. I feel he is perhaps the most under-appreciated composer of all time. thank you Benjamin and the BPO for a wonderful performance of this supreme, life-changing masterpiece!
My late father was a big fan way back in the early 1960s when the Bruckner-Mahler craze suddenly hit the UK so much so that he dragged my poor mother to St Florian one year for their annual holiday! . I was more interested in the Beatles & Rolling Stones in those early years but some time after I had left home I bought a cheap LP recording of Bruckner 7 out of simple curiosity. I was immediately hooked and Bruckner has stubbornly remained my favourite composer ever since and even now well into old age. Mahler has proved the more widely popular of the two but, for me, Bruckner has a spiritual dimension probably only matched by Bach. Bruckner is not the fast, quick-witted he is for the contemplative, profound thinker, imv. I also have to say Zander's overt enthusiasm for this music is an utter joy to behold!
What a joy!! What’s better than new music being played as the composer wanted? Truly marvelous! Thank you Maestro Zander for reintroducing Bruckner and thank you Boston Philharmonic Orchestra for bringing it to life! I hope to one day experience this and other pieces in person as Maestro Zander would want.
Wow! What an unshackled and uninhibited performance! Maestro Zander brought this magnificent work to life, maybe for the first time, utterly transcending the usual somnolent “minimalist” sounding interpretations! Bravo!
I thought the same, the metronome markings (1st theme group, MM minim or 1/2 note = 69, 2nd theme group in A-flat, at MM = 60) are in the handwriting of Bruckner himself. And ONLY for the finale, none of the other 3 movements have metronome markings
❤💚💙💜💙💚❤ I have fallen for this amazing Conductor! Such a sweet soul!🥰 Would love to experience this hall and Orchestra in person some day. My new addition to a growing musical bucket list.🎶 Wow!! 💙🙏💙
I’ve played Bruckner with you and with Haitink. Both marvelous experiences. So happy to see and hear you speak AND lead this beautiful presentation. Brahms got an awful lot of stuff right- this one, he missed. Thankfully we have both now. Stay well!
I visited my daughter, who is attending college in Boston, in October. I drove by the Philarmonic and noticed that they were playing Bruckner's 8th, possibly my favorite symphony of the entire classical repertoire, in a few days. I asked her if she wanted me to buy a ticket for her. Obviously she wasn't too keen, and plus it was sold out. I really, really felt bad about missing the opportunity. We don't even have this in New York! I am therefore so glad to see the recording on TH-cam! Thank you BPO!
Zander, with his enthusiasm could even sell catfood to our dog! .... While beeing at the atlantic sea for some days, I had to listen to Bruckner. He was the one, who could tell me everything about the powerfull waves, the wind, the fast moving clouds and the wast ocean.
That Adagio is just soooo beautiful. Feels like a scene from an opera. The lines feel so "sung". Glorious. Certainly one of the most beautiful things Bruckner wrote.
Amazing... after hearing these two epic symphonies over the years. You've pointed out that the first movement theme is a derivative of Beethoven's 9th. I just love revelations like this. Thanks for the upload...
This was a heroic performance of the BPO under trying circumstances, particularly by the masked string and percussion sections. As demonstrated in the opening lecture and subsequent musical reading, Bruckner's 8th Symphony really gets Maestro Zander's dander up. One of the all time great symphonic head fakes that is uniquely Brucknerian occurs starting at 21:46 where F Major (the subdominant chord in the key of C Major) is perceived to be the ending tonic key. However, the ground shifts with that strikingly dissonant chord at 2:12:03 leading to the quick G dominant 7th chord at 2:12:05, which cadences to the real ending tonic key of C Major at 2:12:06. The composer will use a similarly elongated subdominant preparation for the ending of the first movement of his follow on 9th Symphony in D Minor.
A great pre-concert talk! One important technical point though. While it is correct that the first of the two cymbal crashes at the climax of the Adagio is on a unstable 6/4 chord of E-flat, the chord of the second crash is not the tonic chord, but an interrupted cadence on the major chord on the flatten submediant of E-flat (i.e., a C-flat major chord). The 6/4 chord is resolved in the standard way to a root-position dominant chord (B-flat major) on the last quarter note of measure 242 of the Novak edition which would conventionally lead to a tonic E-flat major chord on the downbeat of measure 243. However, Bruckner has an interrupted cadence here instead on the C-flat major chord on the second cymbal crash. This tells us the things are not over yet.
Good performance - especially the finale. I have never heard of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. it's not the BSO. Some of the musicians look really young.
These days it is more common to hear this sublime symphony, truely unique in the entire repertory, played with relatively steady tempos. Zander discusses this issue at the beginning of his talk. He uses an older approach, with lots of 'expression', meaning there are numerous changes in tempo (speed) within individual movements. There are some striking effects, but the result is a loss of coherence and momentum, which is frequently a problem with Bruckner, as sublime as his music is. The individual episodes and gestures often don't seem to relate to what is heard just before and just after. Also this orchestra is not the best. To hear what I mean, listen to performances conducted by Gunter Wand or Bernard Haitink, recently deceased, the last conductor to perform this music with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, all the way back in 1998! He favors steady tempos, but he has an uncanny gift of sensing the musical rhetoric of these enormous pieces - what to emphasize, when to press ahead ever so gently, how long Bruckner's pauses should be without losing momentum. Zander clearly loves this music but he doesn't have the inexplicable conductors' skill to make the performance rise to that level. To me, the galloping horses effect is interesting, but a matter of conjecture. The resulting slower tempo means that the opening of the last movement doesn't cohere into one statement, that is to say that some momentum is lost.
Jeez, what a terribly self-important, long-winded 'look how clever I am' comment. 'This orchestra is not the best'. They're semi-professional, for pity's sake. What did you expect?
I do agree with this sentiment, especially with regards to the finale. It felt really sluggish to me... like the musicians were tired or something, lol! Obviously this orchestra isn't going to be Wand/NDR or Celi-Munich or something. It's definitely better than the regional orchestra in my area! Benjamin Zander isn't one of history's great conductors either; more an inspirational speaker than a conductor. I'm grateful that Bruckner 8 is being performed. Too many ensembles avoid playing this work - or Bruckner altogether - because of how demanding it is. Bruckner was made for the concert hall and, I don't know about you, but I haven't seen any programming of Bruckner 8 like... at all! Ultimately, it's better that we hear this work more often in the concert hall than demand perfection.
I remember my very first live classical music concert was Bernard Haitink conducting Haydn and Bruckner 7 with the Chicago symphony, when I first came to study in US more than 10yrs ago. At that time, Haydn's music was more appealing to me and I had no idea I just heard probably the best piece of symphony conducted by its greatest ever interpreter Maestro Haitink. It was not until a few years ago that I started to be amazed by Brukner's symphonies, thanks to Andris brought Brukner 4 to BSO. Arguably, Bruckner 8th is not as easy to listen to as his 4th. And what a wonderful performance Maestro Zander brought to live. Hearing it live in the Boston symphony hall is truly Amazing!
I am listening now to the speech at the beginning of the video , How interesting to listen to this passionate introduction about Bruckner , the less known among the Great Masters and to know he composed 9 symphonies , is It a coincidence : Beethoven - Mahler ?!!!! - I really needed to more approach to Bruckner , rarely listened to his work . Grateful Benjamin Zander : you're really awesome 👍
Why? Consider: Bernstein also never conducted Bruckner's 7th which is his most performed and symmetrically perfect symphony. My guess is that in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust, the Jewish Bernstein kept his distance from Bruckner because (1) of the composer's musical worship of the anti-Semitic Wagner and (2) the Adagio of his 7th was broadcast over German radio in 1945 after Adolph Hitler died. Bernstein eventually did conduct Bruckner's 6th, even lifting the opening theme of its second movement Adagio for his West Side Story's Somewhere, and recorded/performed Bruckner's 9th numerous times later in his life. I recall Bernstein saying that he could never equal von Karajan's interpretation of Bruckner's 8th, but that may have been just his excuse to "dismiss" it, borrowing your word. But Leonard Bernstein was perfectly at home with the music of Anton Bruckner's most notable student, Gustav Mahler.
@@annakimborahpa Thank you, this is great historical insight into both Bruckner and Bernstein, this may explain some part of Bernstein's love affair with Mahler (who had no easy go of it in Wagner-worshipping Vienna) - Bernstein found in Mahler a kindred spirit, and of course a genius who helped usher in the Modern era.
@@annakimborahpa Bernstein's voluable (to be kind) temperament wasn't in sync with the leisurely pace and frequent digressions of Bruckner's music. He once conducted the Ninth Symphony, which one can see as a harbinger of the musical modernism with which Bernstein identified, and it was limp and disappointing. James Levine also didn't perform Bruckner, because the classical, intellectual, bent of his personal music making couldn't find a path into Bruckner's unique musical world.
@@paulforman9149 You may be referring to Bernstein's later video recording of the Bruckner 9th he made with the VPO near the end of his life and his tempos on it are quite slow, particularly the Scherzo. I cut my teeth on his earlier version with the NYPO that was recorded in 1969, which I think is a good reading: th-cam.com/video/iixIEnaHGfg/w-d-xo.html
I attended this symphony in concert in 2004, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2015. It‘s time for another shot of Bruckner‘s greatest. It‘s one of the Symphonic works with the most depth I came across so far.
How wonderful that you have made this marvelous lecture and performance available on line, for those of us who live too far away to attend in person! Bravi! (Only one request: please tell your timpani player to pull up his mask so it actually accomplishes something! Thank you!)
It's one of those things that you can't help noticing these days -- If he'd been on a bus I would have objected. Still, it could have been worse: If they'd been playing Z's version of The Rite of Spring, he's really be huffing and puffing :)
Ben(jamin), a great soul not a kind of fish as your family name suggests it, it's the greatest ever performance of eighth symphony by Bruckner after the death of Wilhelm Furtwängler, to which even great Evgeny Mravinsky couldn't come close enough (but in the ninth both by Mravinsky and Leonard Bernstein in March 1990)!!! Sonic and rythmic clarity is so important to play Bruckner. Incidentally, today is December 23rd of the year 2021, and we are going toward to the Summer Solstice of the year 2022 (already)!!! Joy and hope and resilience of the society of your nation all to you and to all your collegues!!!
Danke, Herr Zander! Man könnte Ihnen stundenlang zuhören! Danke, dass Sie Anton Bruckner mit so einer unglaublichen Begeisterung den Menschen nahebringen. ❤
Bruckner had a teaching post in the vienna conservatory and was fairly well connected to vienna's upper musical society(met wagner, brahms etc). Yes he had difficulties and was attacked by many but the introduction paints a fictitious picture about who he was.
Unfortunately they opted for american seating. For Bruckner the german seating with the Violins on opposing sides of the stage and the Basses in the back is a must. And the camera director should learn when to cut to what. At the climax of the development in the first movment showing the winds is completely unmusical editing.
00:40:45: Do you find this "galloping horses" theory with regard to the tempo of IV convincing? There have been so many extra-musical associations in the past. Even if Bruckner talked about the three emperors - should we ground the assumption of an only-true tempo on this? It sounds good, no doubt. But just listen to the slightly faster Celibidache rendition in Tokyo.
I don't really have an opinion on this tempo as compared to other performances as this is the first time I'm hearing this symphony, but I just wanted to note that he's already sped it up a tad from the alleged galloping pace of 69bpm-- they're playing at around 72-74.
Great job, Boston Philharmonic. Keep up the good work. Ignore the bloviated, self-important critics who want to show how clever they are by writing long-winded opinions in these comments. Or,.even better, read them and laugh at their silliness. You done good!
Thank you for sharing your comments about the Bruckner Symphony No. 8. The detail was so well said and played examples that a person just has to be excited about it! This video deserves more attention as there is so much contained in it and I feel I must return to it to get more meaning from it as there is so much technically going one. Magnificently presented! Thank you Benjamin Zander and all your wonderful disciplined music artists!
Most sluggish introduction to iv that I can recall. The section that comes after isn't so much a relief as a continuation of stasis. The orchestra lacks heft. Phrasing remains foursquare- there's no snap anywhere. By the time you get to 1:53:35 things are seriously drooping. The sequence at 1:54:50 is woefully underpowered. Blow the roof off- what is the percussion doing gently tapping this out? It isn't Debussy. No doubt everyone gave it their best- this falls on Zander. He gestures like he's producing some sort of action, but this is not good Bruckner.
@Alex Lancaster That's one of the silliest arguments available to anyone who wishes to negate the opinions and experience of others. I suspect if you spend the time to get to know this piece or any other quite well, you will have very clear reactions - positive or negative - that you can describe. And you might also then realize that an acumen for listening stands apart from any particular technical ability, academic expertise, professional accomplishment, or any other separate category of musical involvement worthy of respect. The bottom line is that calling a performance led by Ben Zander bad is just a call that a particular performance is bad, nothing more. That's the way it sounds in my head. Perhaps you like what you hear in this video. Great! I truly believe that your experience is just as valid as my own. Don't waste your time arguing with people with who don't agree, and with whom you lack the sound footing for refuting. In the meantime, my reaction persists.
@@conw_y There are many ways to do it. Unfortunately, I'm more inclined to embrace a scrappy, messy fireball like Bohm/Zurich than I am to swoon over a sedate performance where balances are tasteful, ensemble tight, and orchestral sounds refined. Those are all accomplishments for a community orchestra, yes- is that how I should be looking at this? No, I don't think there was an invitation here to grade on a curve.
@@andrewtaylor5695 The idea that offering criticism amounts to condescension is just mistaken. There’s enough swooning going on here that one person saying “this actually isn’t very good at all” only balances thing out. In fact, when so many of the positive comments here are so different from my own experience, is it somehow dishonorable to say “that’s not what I hear at all?” If you think so then we follow different rules where thought and criticism are concerned. I’ve tried to suggest that the faults here are mainly interpretive and the result of Zander, not the orchestra, whose playing is quite good. All that may not acquit me in your eyes. But at least I can craft an argument and tell you why I think you are wrong without attacking your character or motives. I’ve also been specific in my criticisms. If you want to contradict me with specifics, I’d love to hear another report as to where and how this performance succeeds for you. There are other comments here to that effect and I’m not jumping in to say the author is wrong. If that is satisfying to them, that’s great.
A 45 minute pre-concert talk. THEN, 90 minutes in a seat in a row in an auditorium facing forward listening to a difficult symphony for the first time ! A cruel ordeal. But, let me speak for myself. I can sit in an audience setting to watch a film or an opera. In those cases my eyes and mind as well as my ears are engaged . I am not easily distracted But sitting for 90 minutes watching an orchestra is mind numbing. If I am only listening, I prefer not to be immobile, squeezed in among a lot of other people...people who might be talking or humming or coughing or sneezing or rustling their program or unwrapping a cellophane covered hard candy or tapping their foot to the music or reeking of tobacco or perfume or some other intrusive odor. Listening requires focusing and concentration and peace. If I am going to listen to this Bruckner symphony, it will be in the quiet of my living room...alone !
I agree that 45 min pre-concert talk was a bit excessive, but a live rendition of a Bruckner's masterpiece can be an extraordinary and unforgettable experience for a new listener.
The symphonies of Bruckner are simply my favourite music of all time. I feel he is perhaps the most under-appreciated composer of all time. thank you Benjamin and the BPO for a wonderful performance of this supreme, life-changing masterpiece!
Same here. Couldn’t agree more. The soundtrack of a life
They are unique for sure. Took me ages to warm to Bruckner, but when I finally "got him" you realise what a genius he was...
My late father was a big fan way back in the early 1960s when the Bruckner-Mahler craze suddenly hit the UK so much so that he dragged my poor mother to St Florian one year for their annual holiday! . I was more interested in the Beatles & Rolling Stones in those early years but some time after I had left home I bought a cheap LP recording of Bruckner 7 out of simple curiosity. I was immediately hooked and Bruckner has stubbornly remained my favourite composer ever since and even now well into old age. Mahler has proved the more widely popular of the two but, for me, Bruckner has a spiritual dimension probably only matched by Bach. Bruckner is not the fast, quick-witted he is for the contemplative, profound thinker, imv. I also have to say Zander's overt enthusiasm for this music is an utter joy to behold!
What a joy!! What’s better than new music being played as the composer wanted? Truly marvelous!
Thank you Maestro Zander for reintroducing Bruckner and thank you Boston Philharmonic Orchestra for bringing it to life! I hope to one day experience this and other pieces in person as Maestro Zander would want.
Wow! What an unshackled and uninhibited performance! Maestro Zander brought this magnificent work to life, maybe for the first time, utterly transcending the usual somnolent “minimalist” sounding interpretations! Bravo!
Thank you Ben. Thank you orchestra for some of the most extraordinarily beautiful and profound music.
A finale that makes sense, at long last: tempos are perfectly judged. Excellent playing by all sections of the orchestra.
I thought the same, the metronome markings (1st theme group, MM minim or 1/2 note = 69, 2nd theme group in A-flat, at MM = 60) are in the handwriting of Bruckner himself. And ONLY for the finale, none of the other 3 movements have metronome markings
❤💚💙💜💙💚❤
I have fallen for this amazing Conductor! Such a sweet soul!🥰
Would love to experience this hall and Orchestra in person some day. My new addition to a growing musical bucket list.🎶
Wow!! 💙🙏💙
I’ve played Bruckner with you and with Haitink. Both marvelous experiences. So happy to see and hear you speak AND lead this beautiful presentation. Brahms got an awful lot of stuff right- this one, he missed. Thankfully we have both now.
Stay well!
Amazing!!! Awesome sound!!!
OMG thank you sir Benhamin Zander
I visited my daughter, who is attending college in Boston, in October. I drove by the Philarmonic and noticed that they were playing Bruckner's 8th, possibly my favorite symphony of the entire classical repertoire, in a few days. I asked her if she wanted me to buy a ticket for her. Obviously she wasn't too keen, and plus it was sold out. I really, really felt bad about missing the opportunity. We don't even have this in New York! I am therefore so glad to see the recording on TH-cam! Thank you BPO!
Thank you for posting this. I was so fortunate to attend this concert in person. It is one of the best concerts I attended.
let me know something more about your experience of this concert, lease
Zander, with his enthusiasm could even sell catfood to our dog! .... While beeing at the atlantic sea for some days, I had to listen to Bruckner. He was the one, who could tell me everything about the powerfull waves, the wind, the fast moving clouds and the wast ocean.
That Adagio is just soooo beautiful. Feels like a scene from an opera. The lines feel so "sung". Glorious. Certainly one of the most beautiful things Bruckner wrote.
Ohhhhh!!!! New video!!!!!!!!!
What a beautiful spirit Mr. Zander is!
Amazing... after hearing these two epic symphonies over the years. You've pointed out that the first movement theme is a derivative of Beethoven's 9th. I just love revelations like this. Thanks for the upload...
This was a heroic performance of the BPO under trying circumstances, particularly by the masked string and percussion sections. As demonstrated in the opening lecture and subsequent musical reading, Bruckner's 8th Symphony really gets Maestro Zander's dander up. One of the all time great symphonic head fakes that is uniquely Brucknerian occurs starting at 21:46 where F Major (the subdominant chord in the key of C Major) is perceived to be the ending tonic key. However, the ground shifts with that strikingly dissonant chord at 2:12:03 leading to the quick G dominant 7th chord at 2:12:05, which cadences to the real ending tonic key of C Major at 2:12:06. The composer will use a similarly elongated subdominant preparation for the ending of the first movement of his follow on 9th Symphony in D Minor.
My first Bruckner was also with wonderful Haitink, at the Proms in London, about 1973.. Bruckner 8.
A great pre-concert talk! One important technical point though. While it is correct that the first of the two cymbal crashes at the climax of the Adagio is on a unstable 6/4 chord of E-flat, the chord of the second crash is not the tonic chord, but an interrupted cadence on the major chord on the flatten submediant of E-flat (i.e., a C-flat major chord). The 6/4 chord is resolved in the standard way to a root-position dominant chord (B-flat major) on the last quarter note of measure 242 of the Novak edition which would conventionally lead to a tonic E-flat major chord on the downbeat of measure 243. However, Bruckner has an interrupted cadence here instead on the C-flat major chord on the second cymbal crash. This tells us the things are not over yet.
Good performance - especially the finale. I have never heard of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. it's not the BSO. Some of the musicians look really young.
grazie di cuore per l'opportunità datami! audio ottimo, ma la regìa? s'era accorta che c'era un direttore?
The trumpeters play with german instruments and the horn players with real Wagner tuben. It's magnificent.
These days it is more common to hear this sublime symphony, truely unique in the entire repertory, played with relatively steady tempos. Zander discusses this issue at the beginning of his talk. He uses an older approach, with lots of 'expression', meaning there are numerous changes in tempo (speed) within individual movements. There are some striking effects, but the result is a loss of coherence and momentum, which is frequently a problem with Bruckner, as sublime as his music is. The individual episodes and gestures often don't seem to relate to what is heard just before and just after. Also this orchestra is not the best. To hear what I mean, listen to performances conducted by Gunter Wand or Bernard Haitink, recently deceased, the last conductor to perform this music with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, all the way back in 1998! He favors steady tempos, but he has an uncanny gift of sensing the musical rhetoric of these enormous pieces - what to emphasize, when to press ahead ever so gently, how long Bruckner's pauses should be without losing momentum. Zander clearly loves this music but he doesn't have the inexplicable conductors' skill to make the performance rise to that level. To me, the galloping horses effect is interesting, but a matter of conjecture. The resulting slower tempo means that the opening of the last movement doesn't cohere into one statement, that is to say that some momentum is lost.
Jeez, what a terribly self-important, long-winded 'look how clever I am' comment. 'This orchestra is not the best'. They're semi-professional, for pity's sake. What did you expect?
I do agree with this sentiment, especially with regards to the finale. It felt really sluggish to me... like the musicians were tired or something, lol! Obviously this orchestra isn't going to be Wand/NDR or Celi-Munich or something. It's definitely better than the regional orchestra in my area! Benjamin Zander isn't one of history's great conductors either; more an inspirational speaker than a conductor. I'm grateful that Bruckner 8 is being performed. Too many ensembles avoid playing this work - or Bruckner altogether - because of how demanding it is. Bruckner was made for the concert hall and, I don't know about you, but I haven't seen any programming of Bruckner 8 like... at all! Ultimately, it's better that we hear this work more often in the concert hall than demand perfection.
Brave musicians wearing masks. BRAVO
Yes, definitely a concert to listen to rather than watch.
wasn't Bruckner a professor in Vienna? what's this bs about him being an elementary school teacher? is there another Bruckner?
🥰🥰🥰
1:41:15 SALVATION!!!! 🌅
45:36
I remember my very first live classical music concert was Bernard Haitink conducting Haydn and Bruckner 7 with the Chicago symphony, when I first came to study in US more than 10yrs ago. At that time, Haydn's music was more appealing to me and I had no idea I just heard probably the best piece of symphony conducted by its greatest ever interpreter Maestro Haitink. It was not until a few years ago that I started to be amazed by Brukner's symphonies, thanks to Andris brought Brukner 4 to BSO. Arguably, Bruckner 8th is not as easy to listen to as his 4th. And what a wonderful performance Maestro Zander brought to live. Hearing it live in the Boston symphony hall is truly Amazing!
Zander is a bit crazy, but it's one of the better kinds of crazy
One of my favourite symphony! The adagio is the most beautiful thing I've ever heard!
Great lecture! And yes, the "Phish people" know that Eb major is related to C minor. :)
I am listening now to the speech at the beginning of the video , How interesting to listen to this passionate introduction about Bruckner , the less known among the Great Masters and to know he composed 9 symphonies , is It a coincidence : Beethoven - Mahler ?!!!! - I really needed to more approach to Bruckner , rarely listened to his work . Grateful Benjamin Zander : you're really awesome 👍
Well if you say that bruckner wrote 9 symphonies mahler wrote 10. And maybe even 11 because Das lied von der Erde is ofcourse also a symphony 😂😅
Probably the most eloquent speech about music I have ever heard anywhere.
Outstanding performance, as is always the case with Maestro Zander.
Wow! Wonderful lecture!!
Why did Bernstein dismiss this beautiful Bruckner symphony? I cut my teeth on the Celibidache / Munich Philharmonic, but wow this is really something.
Why? Consider: Bernstein also never conducted Bruckner's 7th which is his most performed and symmetrically perfect symphony. My guess is that in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust, the Jewish Bernstein kept his distance from Bruckner because (1) of the composer's musical worship of the anti-Semitic Wagner and (2) the Adagio of his 7th was broadcast over German radio in 1945 after Adolph Hitler died. Bernstein eventually did conduct Bruckner's 6th, even lifting the opening theme of its second movement Adagio for his West Side Story's Somewhere, and recorded/performed Bruckner's 9th numerous times later in his life. I recall Bernstein saying that he could never equal von Karajan's interpretation of Bruckner's 8th, but that may have been just his excuse to "dismiss" it, borrowing your word. But Leonard Bernstein was perfectly at home with the music of Anton Bruckner's most notable student, Gustav Mahler.
@@annakimborahpa Thank you, this is great historical insight into both Bruckner and Bernstein, this may explain some part of Bernstein's love affair with Mahler (who had no easy go of it in Wagner-worshipping Vienna) - Bernstein found in Mahler a kindred spirit, and of course a genius who helped usher in the Modern era.
@@annakimborahpa Bernstein's voluable (to be kind) temperament wasn't in sync with the leisurely pace and frequent digressions of Bruckner's music. He once conducted the Ninth Symphony, which one can see as a harbinger of the musical modernism with which Bernstein identified, and it was limp and disappointing. James Levine also didn't perform Bruckner, because the classical, intellectual, bent of his personal music making couldn't find a path into Bruckner's unique musical world.
@@paulforman9149 You may be referring to Bernstein's later video recording of the Bruckner 9th he made with the VPO near the end of his life and his tempos on it are quite slow, particularly the Scherzo. I cut my teeth on his earlier version with the NYPO that was recorded in 1969, which I think is a good reading:
th-cam.com/video/iixIEnaHGfg/w-d-xo.html
I attended this symphony in concert in 2004, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2015. It‘s time for another shot of Bruckner‘s greatest. It‘s one of the Symphonic works with the most depth I came across so far.
The intro talk was phenomenal already, let alone the performance.
How wonderful that you have made this marvelous lecture and performance available on line, for those of us who live too far away to attend in person! Bravi! (Only one request: please tell your timpani player to pull up his mask so it actually accomplishes something! Thank you!)
It's one of those things that you can't help noticing these days -- If he'd been on a bus I would have objected. Still, it could have been worse: If they'd been playing Z's version of The Rite of Spring, he's really be huffing and puffing :)
Ben(jamin), a great soul not a kind of fish as your family name suggests it, it's the greatest ever performance of eighth symphony by Bruckner after the death of Wilhelm Furtwängler, to which even great Evgeny Mravinsky couldn't come close enough (but in the ninth both by Mravinsky and Leonard Bernstein in March 1990)!!! Sonic and rythmic clarity is so important to play Bruckner. Incidentally, today is December 23rd of the year 2021, and we are going toward to the Summer Solstice of the year 2022 (already)!!! Joy and hope and resilience of the society of your nation all to you and to all your collegues!!!
Lead Clarinet player is amazing throughout.
Danke, Herr Zander! Man könnte Ihnen stundenlang zuhören! Danke, dass Sie Anton Bruckner mit so einer unglaublichen Begeisterung den Menschen nahebringen. ❤
Bruckner had a teaching post in the vienna conservatory and was fairly well connected to vienna's upper musical society(met wagner, brahms etc). Yes he had difficulties and was attacked by many but the introduction paints a fictitious picture about who he was.
Met Benjamin in KL......a really nice fellow ! And his pre-concert talks are always interesting & informative.
Unfortunately they opted for american seating. For Bruckner the german seating with the Violins on opposing sides of the stage and the Basses in the back is a must.
And the camera director should learn when to cut to what. At the climax of the development in the first movment showing the winds is completely unmusical editing.
Harpists sound marvellous, and playing with a slight delay as at 1:43:10 so we can hear them all is a great touch!
Donde esta el director?
00:40:45: Do you find this "galloping horses" theory with regard to the tempo of IV convincing? There have been so many extra-musical associations in the past. Even if Bruckner talked about the three emperors - should we ground the assumption of an only-true tempo on this? It sounds good, no doubt. But just listen to the slightly faster Celibidache rendition in Tokyo.
I love Celi's rendition of Bruckner's 8th.
I don't really have an opinion on this tempo as compared to other performances as this is the first time I'm hearing this symphony, but I just wanted to note that he's already sped it up a tad from the alleged galloping pace of 69bpm-- they're playing at around 72-74.
@@JaxonBurn If this is the case, then 69 would be really, really slow. Thanks for checking.
Great job, Boston Philharmonic. Keep up the good work. Ignore the bloviated, self-important critics who want to show how clever they are by writing long-winded opinions in these comments. Or,.even better, read them and laugh at their silliness. You done good!
Thank you for sharing your comments about the Bruckner Symphony No. 8. The detail was so well said and played examples that a person just has to be excited about it! This video deserves more attention as there is so much contained in it and I feel I must return to it to get more meaning from it as there is so much technically going one. Magnificently presented! Thank you Benjamin Zander and all your wonderful disciplined music artists!
2:03:45 You can tell he listened to Knappertsbusch!
Well, in fact, this comes from the first edition from 1892 (the score BZ talks about during his talk).
@@nicolascouton5408 Interesting, I didn't know this. Thanks for sharing.
Maybe he enjoyed some Schnapps with a Busch beer chaser too.
1:32:08
Most sluggish introduction to iv that I can recall. The section that comes after isn't so much a relief as a continuation of stasis. The orchestra lacks heft. Phrasing remains foursquare- there's no snap anywhere. By the time you get to 1:53:35 things are seriously drooping. The sequence at 1:54:50 is woefully underpowered. Blow the roof off- what is the percussion doing gently tapping this out? It isn't Debussy. No doubt everyone gave it their best- this falls on Zander. He gestures like he's producing some sort of action, but this is not good Bruckner.
TBH I sort of agree; this isn't the best I've heard. Probably would rank Celibidache or Skrowaczewski higher.
@Alex Lancaster That's one of the silliest arguments available to anyone who wishes to negate the opinions and experience of others. I suspect if you spend the time to get to know this piece or any other quite well, you will have very clear reactions - positive or negative - that you can describe. And you might also then realize that an acumen for listening stands apart from any particular technical ability, academic expertise, professional accomplishment, or any other separate category of musical involvement worthy of respect. The bottom line is that calling a performance led by Ben Zander bad is just a call that a particular performance is bad, nothing more. That's the way it sounds in my head. Perhaps you like what you hear in this video. Great! I truly believe that your experience is just as valid as my own. Don't waste your time arguing with people with who don't agree, and with whom you lack the sound footing for refuting. In the meantime, my reaction persists.
@@conw_y There are many ways to do it. Unfortunately, I'm more inclined to embrace a scrappy, messy fireball like Bohm/Zurich than I am to swoon over a sedate performance where balances are tasteful, ensemble tight, and orchestral sounds refined. Those are all accomplishments for a community orchestra, yes- is that how I should be looking at this? No, I don't think there was an invitation here to grade on a curve.
Bless you for condescending to give us your opinion on a semi-pro orchestra's performance. Everyone can now see how terribly clever you are.
@@andrewtaylor5695 The idea that offering criticism amounts to condescension is just mistaken. There’s enough swooning going on here that one person saying “this actually isn’t very good at all” only balances thing out. In fact, when so many of the positive comments here are so different from my own experience, is it somehow dishonorable to say “that’s not what I hear at all?” If you think so then we follow different rules where thought and criticism are concerned. I’ve tried to suggest that the faults here are mainly interpretive and the result of Zander, not the orchestra, whose playing is quite good. All that may not acquit me in your eyes. But at least I can craft an argument and tell you why I think you are wrong without attacking your character or motives. I’ve also been specific in my criticisms. If you want to contradict me with specifics, I’d love to hear another report as to where and how this performance succeeds for you. There are other comments here to that effect and I’m not jumping in to say the author is wrong. If that is satisfying to them, that’s great.
A 45 minute pre-concert talk.
THEN, 90 minutes in a seat in a row in an auditorium facing forward listening to a difficult symphony for the first time !
A cruel ordeal.
But, let me speak for myself.
I can sit in an audience setting to watch a film or an opera.
In those cases my eyes and mind as well as my ears are engaged .
I am not easily distracted
But sitting for 90 minutes watching an orchestra is mind numbing.
If I am only listening, I prefer not to be immobile, squeezed in among a lot of other people...people who might be talking or humming or coughing or sneezing or rustling their program or unwrapping a cellophane covered hard candy or tapping their foot to the music or reeking of tobacco or perfume or some other intrusive odor.
Listening requires focusing and concentration and peace.
If I am going to listen to this Bruckner symphony, it will be in the quiet of my living room...alone !
For those attending in person, there is a 30-minute break between the pre-concert talk and the concert.
I agree that 45 min pre-concert talk was a bit excessive, but a live rendition of a Bruckner's masterpiece can be an extraordinary and unforgettable experience for a new listener.
@@IsaacMeadow
I don't disagree with that.
It's the venue that I find difficult to contend with.
Bully for you. Quite why you felt the need to tell everyone this is quite beyond me.
@@andrewtaylor5695
Just like you, I was expressing my opinion.
But, unlike you, I didn't belittle you for doing it.
This is wrong like other conductors. Only Celibidache did it right.
you mean Karajan right? 🤨
@@gab2550 No
That's certainly what Celibidache himself thought ... and said!!
Face coverings are disgusting. Bye bye! Back to Celi.
Yes, this is a concert to listen to rather than watch. There is a certain irony between what is displayed and what Bruckner's life shows.