PERFORMERS

ORQUESTRA SIMFÒNICA DE BARCELONA I NACIONAL DE CATALUNYA (OBC)
Eiji Oue, conductor

WORKS

BRUCKNER: Symphony no. 8

Huge and monumental. These are the adjectives most commonly associated with Anton Bruckner's Eighth Symphony in C minor. Composed at one of the few times of euphoria that he felt, happy after the success of the Seventh, it is one of the most impassioned symphonies in the repertoire. When Bruckner presented it to Jewish conductor Hermann Levi, a great champion of his work, he found it too difficult to play. As is usual, the composer revised it ad nauseam until he found the key that answered his concerns. Dedicated to Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria, the revised version was premièred by the great conductor Hans Richter in 1892, immediately becoming a timeless success. Composer Hugo Wolf was wont to describe it as the creation of a giant, superior to any other Brucknerian creation in terms of spiritual dimension and magnitude. In it, Bruckner blends moments of high climax (such as the instants prior to the end of the first movement or the explosive finale to the piece) with oases of religious mediation that, according to Furtwängler, “seek dialogue with or even to attract the divine to our human world”.