If I Could Choose Only One Work By...BRUCKNER
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ม.ค. 2023
- It Would Have To Be...Symphony No. 7
It's the slow movement that clinches it here--but you may feel differently. Feel free to justify your choice, as well as any other composer/work/album combinations for future videos. - เพลง
It must be Bruckner’s 8th. That finale is unmatched in all symphonies.
I have to agree with you on this one. I'm still a long way from calling myself a Bruckner fan, but the Finale of the 8th may just nudge me in that direction.
@@EgoSumAbbas820 Agreed. It has to be the 8th. I like this game!
@@UlfilasNZ agree with No. 8, easy choice for me..
What must be must be.
The 8th symphony has to be one of my favorites. Each movement has a unique charm about it which is compelling in their own ways, but the more I've come to terms with the work the more I lean on the 1st and 3rd movements (despite loving the others too.) The first is cosmic and truly a grand piece of music, and the third movement has those qualities as well as being both beautiful and epic as Bruckner creates a long lasting yet continuous arc of music that is connected all the way through. And that's not to speak of the tremendous colors/harmonies found throughout! It's one of those works (esp. 3rd mvt) whose atmosphere lends greatly to the illusion of having no start or ending, just being in existance.
That sublime final coda of Bruckner's 4th gets me every time. Perfect.
No, there can be only 1: no.9. Its opening is the most mystical, magical, mysterious, awe inspiring in all symphonic writing (especially in Karajan's live 1977 recording with the Vienna Phil). And its Scherzo- the most brutal, forceful, destroying anything it is its way Scherzo in all off musical history! And who cares that he never completed the 4th movement? The first 3 movements are so magnificent, that there really is NO need for a 4th movement. This is the most perfectly completed unfinished symphony ever wriiten. No, we can survive without the 7th, but without the 9th? What a loss that will be!!!
The 3 movement 9th is undoubtedly my choice. Bruckner's definitive lyrical statements are found here. It also features his most inventive and confident orchestration,completely unmatched. Some times I find myself in complete shock and awe when I take a break and come back to it.
If you, indeed, mean Karajan's live 1976 performance with the VPO (DG), I'm all with you in holding it in very high regards. It's a gripping, shattering experience.
If only allowed one Bruckner recording/symphony, though, I'll still be sticking with the 7th - it's unquestionably part of, what I conceive of as, the triptycon of late symphonies (7-9), but also contains some of the lyricism inherent in his earlier symphonies (e.g. the opening of the 1st movement with the magic, underlying string tremolo leads me to think of the beginning of the 4th). In this respect I would think this work as giving the more comprehensive representative picture of Bruckner's output in general, which I think would be of some importance, if only one work of Bruckner's can survive the fearsome, apocalyptic cataclysm, painted by Highpriest Hurwitz.
However, this game reminds me of one we played as kids: " What would you prefer: being blind or being deaf?", "....loosing an arm or loosing a leg?, and so forth. To have to choose between the 7th versus the 9th seems to me to put us in the same pickle as did our childhood game!
@@jensguldalrasmussen6446 Yes, sorry, memory slip from my side: it is indeed the 1976 live Karajan Bruckner 9th.
I will be a minority of one, here. For me, I would choose the 5th symphony. The apotheosis in the finale is quite simply the heavens opening up and the light of eternity flood the earth. My favorite recording is Jochum/Dresden. In the opening bars, that bass trombone player must be heard to be believed. I wish I knew who it was. I've played it for all my trombone friends, and they are all mesmerized. It may take a bit of patience, but the payoff at the end is worth the wait.
I'm with you. Amazing that Brucker never had a Finale problem with the Fifth, as with most of the others, and with no revisions and uncertainties, yet it's the most complex with the double fugue etc. It seems the most assured, and the most abstract. Bruckner reaches to the heavens with confidence.
I totally agree. I sometimes get tears of joy at the end. I‘d also emphasize the bass‘s entrance in the coda of the finale, and especially in the beginning of the very last statement (after the last build-up initiated by the violins). Holy cow, always blows me away, even after 100 times. Personally, it‘s an absolute Benchmark performance others need to get at (still haven‘t found any orchestras that compare to the „Dresdener Blech“, feel free to recommend )😊.
The 7th Symphony of Bruckner is a glorious choice. Yes by all means. I could live with that. However there are two other Bruckner symphonies I personally am compelled to return to again and again. I'm one of those people who loves the 5th. I'm something of a 5th collector. The opening, with Palestrina counterpoint over a walking pizzicato bass, which eventually leads to a wonderfully Schubertian melody gliding through many moods, haunts my soul. The scherzo has the same opening music as the slow movement, though sped up! That little, almost comical octave leap motive in the last movement, represented Bruckner the self-effacing country bumpkin in sophisticated Vienna, and yet he builds a magnificent triple fugal finale out of it, that ascends to the stars. You'll think I'm really eccentric but the other Bruckner symphony that I love is almost never played: Symphony No. 1, (the Linz version,) is tremendous. First of all, it's the fastest Bruckner symphony, fast in terms of the rapid flow of ideas. The slow movement is heartfelt, the scherzo is as rustic as they come, and the finale leads the ear into some unusual deceptive cadences that extend the coda. Imagine for example the symphony is in c minor but ends in C major, as we approach the final moments of the finale, our ears are set up to finally expect the tonic chord of C but instead we get the note C harmonized in the lowered-submediant of A-flat borrowed from c minor for a few seconds. I know this gets a bit technical but our ears hear it! The ground drops out from under us. It's one of many magical moments. No. 1 also opens with a kind of march tempo. I recommend the old Eugen Jochum DG recording to anyone who wants to experience it. Bruckner had a nervous breakdown after writing Symphony No.1 (which as most fans know was preceded by two symphonies,) and all his great numbered symphonies that followed it became more expansive, yet the themes in the 1st, though very Brucknerian, come at the pace of a Tchaikovsky symphony.
Bruckner symphony 5
Don't know why but I love it
Jochum Concertgebouw 1981
I am going left field with the String Quintet! Another glorious ineffable slow movement :)
A symphony without all the fat ^^
I'd choose the Ninth. Pure power and majesty (not that the other symphonies are lacking in those departments, but the Ninth is special).
The Ninth, W/O the finale, such as it is. IMHO. The seventh is fine for two great movements.
I would choose the 7th, also, because it was the first Bruckner's symphony I've heard, and it struck me!
I love the 7th. And the 8th. And the 9th, which I’m glad was never finished. But too many people like those symphonies - it’s a bit like identifying the Beatles or the Stones or Led Zeppelin, as your favourite bands. So I’m going to go with the 3rd, the symphony where he ‘got it’: you can finally hear his unique voice. Chailly’s recording, which I heard for the first time this week, helped convince me.
One work by Pierre Boulez: 'In Memoriam Maderna' for many reasons.
It has a heartfelt , unpretentious title, wasn't tinkered around for years (or decades as sometimes with Boulez works), or left unfinished like 3rd sonata. It feels like it was written with good, old-fashioned inspiration rather than mental doodles as you hear in say Livres pour Cordes. In concert, performers actually look like they're enjoying it - rather than just tense as in le Marteau sans Maitre. Actually looking at Universal Edition stats , IMM has been performed more often than any other PB piece
Anton Boulez or Pierre Bruckner?
Bruckner 9 - just the Adagio will do.
The 2nd symphony has also got a most beautiful adagio
Always tough! I love the Bruckner 7th, but I think I have to go with the 6th. I had never heard it until I saw Nagano conduct the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin at the Proms in 2005. It was one of my most memorable concerts. The horn outburst at the beginning, the second movement, the finale. I was blown away which was made even more exciting since I was watching Nagano from excellent seats behind the orchestra. The 6th! But the 7th, etc. are hard to let go of if not impossible.
And that dramatic "Bruckner rhythm" in the sixth! It's in my ear for the day now.
The 7th adagio is of course ravishing (prefer Ormandy RCA Japan) but overall it would be the 8th as the most satisfying Bruckner symphony for which I prefer Tennstedt EMI-Warner. I love the 4th (Ormandy Sony Japan) and the 9th (Walter, Sony) too!
For me, it would have to be the Sixth. I just love the Adagio, with its combination of lament, song and funeral march all within a pretty much perfect Sonata form. And the rhythmic complexities of the first movement are quite amazing too. After that, the last two movements are a bit anticlimactic, but so are those of the Seventh. Incidentally, the work I would miss the most after making such a choice would be the Second...
I chose the 5th, but the 6th runs a very close second. Again, my fave recording is Jochum/Dresden. That first movement could be used direct as film score for Lawrence of Arabia.
AMEN
For me, it's the Te Deum! Bruckner is at his best in vocal music. the text gives him a much needed source of external structure, and it's a helluva fun piece to sing/play.
Every Bruckner piece
I would choose the Fifth (though the 7 or 8 ths kept on mentally consoling me when I was in the bus coming back from a painful meeting with government officials) because I never listened to it and that it seems really worthy of trying, according to Your Word.
I would have gone for No. 5. To me it's the most coherent and well proportioned of all his symphonic output. That chorale after the slow introduction in the Adagio is heart stopping.
I’m with you on the 5th symphony for the same reasons you first discussed. It’s apotheosis of Bruckner and not for nothing, sounds like a Batman movie. But the 7th is probably the better answer.
I cannot choose, Great moment in all the symphonies. I do not want to choose and I won't.
I'm gonna attend Bruckner's 8th next week in Stockholm, looking forward to it! Without having listened to it that much so far
I have been listening to Dave for a while and decided to finally make a comment. Not many opportunities to enjoy live performances of Bruckner in South Australia, but Bruckner and Sibelius are constants in my listening preferences. The 8th is magnificent. The first and third movements of the 9th are awe inspiring (especially under Giulini) but I've never liked the scherzo and the dogs breakfast of a finale is, as Dave has said previously, 'horrible, horrible'.
For me, and a few others here, it is the 5th. When he works his way up that cliff face in the finale, it's as if this is where he has been heading his whole life.
A piece of trivia. I recently watched the old B grade movie 'The Owl and the Pussycat'. I won't be doing that again, but I did notice in a couple of scenes that there is a cover of one of Jochum's DGG Bruckner recordings on the wall in the background.
And what use is a god who always gets things backwards?
I love all of 3-9. The 7th is a good choice, and I agree with the reasoning. I think the 8th is also a good choice, and even the 4th. I dont listen to the 5th as much as the others, and think the finale of the 5th drags on a bit.
Fine pick👍
I’ll stick with Bruckner’s 9th. To me it’s an obvious choice, for what this masterpiece has given to me in my life.
bruckner.....all the slow movement of his 9 symphonies....particulary the no 7 and 8
Some say Symphony No. 7 is the one loved by people who don't like Bruckner. For having watched your videos, I know that this is not your case.
The n°7 OK, and I don't see what is reproached to the 4th movement. I find it very successful.
Since I have to give my opinion, there it is. For me, Bruckner's best work is the 8th symphony. Why? It's of course very subjective. 1st movement is powerful and dramatic. The Scherzo trio is very poetic. The adagio is for me the most beautiful symphonic adagio that I know (I put it before that of the 7). The end, for instance, with the dialogue of horns and violins is poetic and very moving. But it is very difficult to describe the emotion created by this adagio with words. The symphony ends with a splendid 4th movement and the coda, to me, is without equal in the history of the symphony. Of course, I don't know all the symphonies. Everything is magnificent in this symphony from the first note to the last.
I made a transfer onto tape from a recording of the 7th symphony, and inadvertantly I left almost no gap between the beginning of the adagio and the previous movement, I don't know why, but that was very effective! I wonder why?
Yes, the 7th is what really got me into the Jochum Dresden cycle back in 2006. Been hooked ever since, it's a gorgeous work that will always affect me in ways that other pieces of music don't. The 6th comes a close second, I really have a thing for the Colin Davis/LSO recording on LSO Live, because there's something about how he handles the slow movement, slowly, but not too slowly, that really draws every single piece of phrasing and line out without losing the momentum. Excellently handled. I feel that Mackerras would've been able to handle the 6th and 7th, if anybody has heard his Mahler 6 wth the BBC Phil, you'll know what I mean about phrasings and lines - he handles that work as though it's set dressing for an opera, and I think that could be what's needed for Bruckner at times.
For me personally the 8th. But love them all
The Bruckner 8th would be my choice. The third movement closing minutes as well as the closing section of the finale never fail to move me.
Locus iste. Our music teacher at school (first we'd had in years) made us spotty boys sing it, thereby introducing me to AB. It's short and beautiful, good combination.
+1 for Bruckner 7. Fun new feature/list!
Echoing a few people here, I too would go with Bruckner 8, for the Adagio in particular, which to steal David’s word is ‘transcendental’, I would say more transcendental than the slow movement of the 7th. My recording of choice would be Karajan/VPO.
Absolutely right, Symphony 7 has to be the one. The adagio alone requires this choice.
Two suggestions:
Wagner: Siegfried's Funeral March or the latter part of Walkyrie, Act III
Bach: Passacaglia and Fugue in c
Great game! Look forward to the rest of this series. Tough call between the 7th and the 8th...but for me it would have to be the latter, as it takes me all the way.
If I could only choose one video by Dave Hurwitz this would be the one … it’s vintage Hurwitz. I haven’t heard all of the Bruckner symphonies but this video makes me want to.
Nice! We’re premiering a new edition of Bruckner 7 by American Bruckner Society scholar Paul Hawkshaw at Yale in April! And it’s on a program with Brahms Violin with Augustin Hadelich!!
Excited to be diving into this piece soon, thanks for this video 😄
It used to be Bruckner 8 for me: the ending of the 1st movement, the most beautiful slow movement, and what a finale, my God, the coda! But now (knowing Bruckner a little better) I prefer the 5th, for all the reasons you mentioned. The 7th is more accessible, I "get it", but I'm never finished with the 5th.
Thanks. Going to start my Bruckner journey with No 7. Put on a live recording by Klemperer with BP from 1958 that I have.
Back in 1997 or so my percussion/timpany teacher recommended to me that i check out Bruckner's 8. So i went to our local department store and bought the '89 Lorin Maazel recording. Since then i've be seeking for the proverbial “reference recording” of the piece. It couldn't be this one, since it was part of EMI's budget “Red Line”, could it? It took me a few decades to figures out that basically i already got one of the really great recordings ... So for very personal reasons i prefer the 8th ...
My pick for Bruckner would be his 8th symphony. I feel it's the most structurally-complete symphony of the bunch. First movement is a great and mystic prelude to the following movements. Second movement is a good mood changer; it's light-hearted and in some way funny. Third movement is the long adagio that gives the symphony a touch of - although I don't like the term - spirituality. The finale is the grandest and most romantic movement of the symphony to conclude the entire (long) listening experience.
It's No.8th for me...as much as I like the 7th, the Adagio of the 8th far surpasses the 7th to my mind.
In hard agreement.
I love 4-9, all for different reasons, and depending on my mood. I would almost pick 5, based on the finale, except I don't get the 1st movement, which always seems too disconnected to work musically for me. I have to pick 8, all things considered. It has strong formal construction, loads of excitement, and profundity. And thank you, Dave, for turning me on to my favorite recording of the work: Otmar Suitner and the Berlin Stadtscapelle.
Interesting choice! To me 7th is by far the most frustrating given how amazingly great the first half is compared the rest. If I had to choose I'd have a very rough time deciding between 5, 8 and 9. But I'd probably go with the safe choice: 8. It's true Bruckners finales are often problematic, but he really outdid himself with 5 and 8 and while I love the finale of 5, I gotta give it to Nr. 8 for the most magnificent journey of all.
I'd agree 100%. The Seventh was the work that gradually helped me appreciate Bruckner and provided a "way in", and I still greatly enjoy it. And I like to have the cymbal clash in the slow movement climax! It feels as if it crowns the whole peak to which the music has been building. Bruckner never revised it, probably because he realised he actually got it right first time. I'm OK with the finale - it rounds the work off effectively enough, and it's hard to compete with the emotion of the slow movement. I heard Colin Davis swap the scherzo and slow movements round to give what he felt was a better emotional balance overall. The Eighth Symphony is also a great work, of course, but less accessible, and doesn't seem as forgiving as the Seventh to less top-notch performances.
Completely agreed. Bruckner Symphony 7 is amazing. Hands down his best work (among the pieces that I have listened to). I'd rank his symphonies in the following order - No.7, No. 9, No. 4, No. 5, No. 8, No.6, No. 3. (I have not listened to No. 0, No. 1, and No. 2) I never too crazy about Bruckner Symphony 8.
Number Seven. I second that!
The Seventh symphony is absolutely wonderful, with the 8th as runner up. Herbert Blomstedt said Bruckner's music was about heaven.
Suggestion for the list. Schubert: String Quintet in C major. D.956. Music that cuts right through you and the Adagio creates more suspense than Alfred Hitchcock was ever able to muster. Just Genius.
Personally, it's a tough choice between 4, 7 and 8. If I have to pick just one, I'll take the 7th by a nose, with the slow movement being the clincher.
Bruckner? What's the shortest thing he ever wrote? I like that one.😜
You are BAD. 😄
Being a newbie, I had never heard of Anton Bruckner. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the only Bruckner mentioned in your Essential Beginners series was Symphony No. 8 in the Challenging Works video. When I listened to the 8th, during the series, I just gave it a check mark which mean I neither loved it or hated it. So, when I saw this video I decided to listen to ALL of Bruckner's Symphonies in order. I did check the comment section here, and your videos, to help me find the best recordings. I am not in love with Bruckner but there were 3 standouts. However, I started second guessing myself because my pick to not be destroyed is not a popular one so I listened again to several versions of my top four, 8, 7 & 5 being the other three. Once again, to my newbie ears, one Symphony again and again roses to the top. My pick to not be destroyed is Symphony No. 2. (I can hear Dave groaning now.) I really liked a 1993 recording by Sir Georg Solti & Chicago Symphony Orchestra. However, I also really enjoyed a controversial pick released in 2022 by Christian Thielemann & Wiener Philharmoniker. I loved this album because I stream my music in high definition and listen with audiophile headphones and this album streams in Ultra HD 360 which makes the beautiful music sound like it is dancing around your head. So throw me off the island but do not throw Symphony No. 2 into the volcano.
Hey, your choice is your choice.
@@DavesClassicalGuide I am really enjoying this series. After I finished listening to all but 28 of the listings in your Essential beginners series, I compiled a list of the works that I really connected to into a top 10 list of composers. I was going to start digging into those composers when your first video of this series popped up on one of the artists on my list, Ravel. I watched the video and read the comments and started listening to more Ravel. Every new video, I have focused on that artist and tried to at least listen to all their symphonies and other selections selected by "the god" or highly recommended. Only 5 out of the 6 composers are in my top 10 but I am listening to all of them. Again, thank you for opening my eyes to this music while I am going through this challenging time in my life.
@@rhonda8900 It's my pleasure. I hope that it helps you meet whatever challenges you are facing.
@@DavesClassicalGuide I am still the sole caretaker for my paralyzed 80 year old mother who I have in a nursing home less than five minutes from my home. She was difficult in the best of times......
@@rhonda8900 I understand. It's miserable. You have my sincere best wishes.
The horse has finally arrived in Connecticut 😀
Just symphonic works? I think Bruckner's masses and choral works are worthy of some consideration. I'll need to go back to the beginning of this series to see about your criteria. That aside, one could do worse than Bruckner's 7th. It's got melodies, variety, lushness, a bit of humour and a generous helping of teutonic grandeur. In the middle movements, I think of Wagner... if he possessed a heart. All in all, a lovely way of occupying an hour on this rather cold planet.
Unquestionably the Seventh! With or without cymbal crash. Not always, but sometimes there are very good reasons why certain works are most popular in a composer's output.
Apollo, the God of music, told me that his favourite is the Bruckner 9.
What did he know?
The final coda of Bruckner s 8th Symphony is by far his best composed score. The best I've seen is the Munich Philharmonic under conductor Celibedachi
Symphony No 7. For all your reasons, plus its "classical" two substantial opening movements then two lighter outer movements; that's if "lighter" is appropriate for Bruckner...But I love the finale, it sums up the work perfectly. Its definitely in the Haydn tradition (though often Haydn wasn't in the Haydn tradition as per the crusade!) It's a glorious piece. In my new junior encyclopedia the section on classical music had a list of important composers, summary information then in italics their important piece; for Bruckner read Symphony No 7
I would have to go with those who suggest No8. In fact my choice as the greatest symphony ever written. Sorry Beethoven!
I agree with you. The 7th.
Thank you, oh, Highpriest, for carrying forth my proposal!
I'm sure your choice will delight The Godhead immensely (I still can't spell his name, though: Cankerousance? Cantankerousance?). As much as I love the 8th, I can't picture His Most Terrible Holiness to suffer a symphony spreading over two cds - no matter how gloriously realised it might be (as fx. by Giulini with the VPO or Günther Wand, live in Lübeck).
I find the 7th to be late Bruckner in a manageable nutshell - and I can only say 'Amen' to every word of yours on the work.
As mentioned before, Karajan's last go at it with the VPO (DG) is my desert-island Bruckner recording. Karajan's peculiar sound-amalgam suits this symphony to a 't' - and this recording is probably the one instance, where Karajan without quasi-religious postering comes closest to honestly conveying in music a sense of Unio Mystica.
The late, Danish-German music critic Hans-Georg Lenz pointed, apart from the gloriously realised slow movement, to two elements in this recording, where he especially found Karajan left his indelible mark: the ending of the 1st movement, that sounds as the entering into a catholic Valhalla; and not least the incomparable ending to the symphony, the coda of the last movement with the extended and gradually increasing timpani-roll, like a bridge over the darkness of the deep, and with the Monstrance triumphantly swung over the primordeal, endless void, Ginnungagap, in the ever-increasing luminosity of the rest of the orchestral sound, building to the culminating climax.. Almost difficult not to sink to one's knees in awe!
Ps. Glad to hear, that the Equestrian Bruckner Chorus wasn't left behind in Brooklyn!
I wish I could write as well as you do, oh Demi God!
@@francoisjoubert6867 Thank you for your kind compliment! One of my oldest friends would certainly criticzise my style for being too purple, too lofty. I think my rhetoric might be more easily appreciated in the francophone world than up here in the cold, protestant North! 😉
@@jensguldalrasmussen6446 - well, I grew up in the far, far Calvinist south. Here everything was about dogma and rhetoric (and fire and brimstone).
@@francoisjoubert6867 I'm sure that, that must have been "Hell on Earth" compared to the diluted and secularized version of Lutheran protestantism in Denmark. Only a very small minority confirms to a stricter, fundamentalist interpretation of the Christian creed here - most of those who are members of the Lutheran State Church, are, what I think is called, "four wheel Christians" (they only drive to church on festive occassions: baptism, confirmation, wedding(s), and the final and ultimate car trip....in the hearse! I for my part veer more on the agnostic side.
I didn't know, there were calvinists in the deep South? I thought that the Netherlands and Swiss were the most Southern border in this respect.
Are we, per chance, talking of descendants of pockets of Huguenottes in Southern France, who survived St. Bartholemew's Day and other purges back then?
I have to agree about the 7th on the strength of that adagio alone. I have learnt to love the 9th too, whilst the 4th is nice and accessible. I also must listen to the 8th more, though I find the end a bit of a din after that marvelous buildup in the finale
No 4.... and 7 and 9 and 8 and 3....
I’m torn between the 7th and the 6th. I think I would favor the 6th overall because I prefer the last three movements over the 7th’s last three despite favoring the 7th’s opening movement. I would also choose the 6th for when we get to Mahler but the 7th for Beethoven.
For Haydn? THE CREATION
Mozart: Piano Concerto No.16
Schubert: Piano Sonata No.21, but just the first two movements, and we call it “Unfinished”
Schumann: Piano Quintet
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten
Berlioz: Harold in Italy
Chopin: Barcarolle
Faure: Piano Quintet No.2
Brahms: Clarinet Quintet
Dvorak: Symphony No.6
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.6
Sibelius: Symphony No.3
Bach: Goldberg Variations
Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini
Barber: Knoxville - Summer of 1915
Vaughan Williams: Job
Boulez: Please do not play (Pli selon pli)
Let’s see how many of these I get right.
Bruckner 8 - Adagio. Karajan, Vienna. I got to learn about Bruckner from this work. I tried to play cello and I cannot even start to imagine the discipline the strings must have to play this. Since I live in South Africa, Bruckner performances are scarce - I might therefore select nr 4, because it reminds me of a concert I attended with a dearly departed friend. Difficult choice. Great challenge, and it required thinking, and not a gut reaction.
For me it's also the 8th Symphony, if only because I feel it is his best finale, thus justifying and rewarding the listener for the massive amount of time they invest into listening, it's SO satisfying in that way...however I give honorable mention to its neighbors the 7th and 9th as well. Had he lived to finish the 9th, it probably would have topped them all!
I feel the 7th is the best of Bruckner's fully completed symphonies - which is to say it's my favorite. All four movements are really good. The scherzo is 'the ride of the Valkyries' on steroids. Yes, the underlying sense of humor in the finale needs to brought forward. That's sometimes a 'stumbling point' for conductors.
The only version I have of Bruckner's 7th on CD is conducted by Georg Tintner, whom I have a feeling is not one of your favourite conductors - I may be wrong! He's not one of mine, though.... As for choosing one Bruckner symphony - there's a difference between those one's seen, and those one's just heard. I wasn't in the audience, sadly, but the Skrovacevski performance of the 9th, conducted in great old age, moved me to tears - then there's Guenter Wand (can't find the Umlaut key, sorry!) with the 8th ... Karajan; Haitink; Chailly .... not easy this, is it?
BTW have you heard any of Mravinsky's / Leningrad's Bruckner interpretations? They are excellent.
Of course.
I’m undecided between the 5th and the 8th. If forced to choose I’d say the 8th.
Tough to decide between the Seventh or Eighth but I think I’d go for the Seventh too. Likely Haitink’s or Karajan’s recording.
All of his works are magnificent but I would go for 8 I guess.
I bet no one else will go with... Requiem in d minor. Obscure, not a work of his full maturity, but it has great beauty, and it demonstrates Bruckner's love and talent for sacred/choral composition. Also not plagued by the "Bruckner problem" of multiple versions.
Yet.
I do like the 7th but it seems structurally a bit front-heavy to me with two epic movements to start with and then two short lighter ones to finish. Personally, 5th for me so you almost got it right. :D
Mozart - Gran Partita
As soon as I saw your question, I said No 7. But what a pity that the sixth has such a disappointing finale. The sixth was my introduction to Bruckner when I bought a cheap mono LP on a sale sixty years ago.
Because I am a "line guy," and not a "chord guy," the 7th is my favorite.
Symphony 8 for me
Huh, I always felt like the 7th has one of his more successful finales. The humor! and those big brass chorales! Has that rustic Alpine vibe of the 4th’s scherzo. It’s the 7th, it’s gotta be.
I almost expected Bruckner's March in Eb for brass as a dark horse candidate.
As much as i love the 7th symphony, I cannot imagine living without the monumental 8th symphony in either the Haas or Nowak version. The work demonstrates a staggering breadth of vision allied to power, passion, and great lyrical beauty, and puts all sections of the orchestra through their paces.A good performance can produce goosebumps and sometimes tears; the third movement is sublime. An essential encapsulation of Bruckner’s unique sound world and one of the great creative achievements in all of music.
The Tedeum. In Karajan's recording 😊
I have more suggestions after thinking about this a bit more after suggesting Debussy's Prelude to an Afternoon of the Faun:
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
Taneynev: Oresteya
If I could choose one piece by Pachelbel, it would NOT be the Canon.
I'd go with Bruckner 9. It's also got an amazing slow movement but that scherzo is the real reason! It's maybe the most cohesive thing he ever wrote!
I'll be boring and say the 8th.
I think that the finale of Bruckner's 7th is perfect as it is. The symphony runs for such a long time that the shorter and lighter 4th movement is what suits the piece and makes it complete. So it would also be my choice. This cymbal clash comes off as a little comical to me - there's around 65 minutes of music, but you bring out the cymbals only once throughout. It's also a sign of how the symphonic form evolved - in the classical era, the composers would basically compose for the forces that they had available, but Bruckner has a triangle and cymbals for one entrance, as if it was a privilege for performers to realize composer's work, not the other way around, when it was a privilege for a composer to have their works played.
I wish he had done that approach in the Ninth's finale as well, instead of the mess we were left with when he got too old and sick to cope with the grandiose plans he had conceived.
For the sake of brevity I would choose the Te Deum!
How about Miraculous Mandarin for Bartok? Incredible orchestration, graphic story-telling, scandalous premiere. It has it all.
OK, the 7th despite the finale.
Another vote for the 8th. Not bottom-heavy and with a great finale. Probably the most accomplished one I think.
The 5th is too front-heavy, and for the 7th I am only listening to the first 2 movement.
I miss a few videos and all of a sudden Dave's founded a new religion?
That's what happens when you're not looking.
My vote would be for the 9th. Has all of the merits of the 7th as described but no let down finale.
Haydn will be intresting xd
Just 1: the 8th. If I could have 2, I would add the Te Deum or Mass #3....
Please explain, who is Kakrensanz??? Anyone?
Cancrizans. You can look it up.
@@DavesClassicalGuide It’s an actual word. Mind blown.