Reference Recording: Bruckner's 8th Symphony

While the Wand version you recommended (at the cathedral) is my favorite I greatly admire Karajan's interpretations. He had a wonderful affinity for the 8th. And as you say it makes sense to call the 1975 a reference recording.... Regarding Zubin Mehta I attended a live performance of the 8th in 1971 in L.A. with Mehta conducting the L.A. Phil and it was stupendous! I went with my father, not a classical music fan, and to my surprise and delight he was Blown Away by the piece! "Fantastic! I 've never heard anything like it!" he whispered quietly after the 1st movement ended, and afterwards he raved about it at a late dinner. It is one of my very fond memories :) .

Thank you sir, I’m finding my way with Bruckner and your comments are very helpful.

My intro to Bruckner was via the 8th recorded by the VPO- first by Schuricht (courtesy of my high school library), then Solti, both relatively new at the time. As this was years before I heard the Ring cycle, it was my first exposure to a full Wagnerian orchestra with those Wagner tubas, the eight horns, in stereophonic sound. What an experience!

I bought that version on vinyl. It was my first Bruckner symphony. I was 14. I still have it that version and still love it. Never bought it on CD. Perhaps I will.

In 1968/69 those Eugen Jochum DG Bruckners sat in the bin at the Yale Co-Op until their loose plastic wrappers clouded over and split — at least a year if not more — the same unsold discs.

The Van Beinum recording is pretty thrilling. Very fast tempos at times.

Karajan's final recording of the 7th blows my mind....

My collection includes only one complete Bruckner cycle, the one with the colored angel wings--that this reference recording is part of. I've been very fond of it since having it on vinyl when it originally came out. There are others I enjoy, but this for me is top of the mountain. One of Karajan's very best recordings, and that's saying a lot.

Since I saw your video about the best bruckner 8, I fell in love with Maazel/BPO version on EMI…I cannot listen to anything else! Sorry Herby!

This is probably my favourite recording. I'm a fan of the Giulini one as well.

Thanks, Dave for this persuasive case for Karajan's analog DG as the reference recording for Bruckner 8. There was really no competitor for that honorific status at the time. Now, of course, there are others including my personal reference, you guessed it, Karajan's digital VPO version. When I first heard the analog DG 8th, it blew me away. It's still probably the most intense version I have heard. But the digital one is warmer, flows better, and sounds better overall (DG gave Karajan tinny sonics frequently in the '70's. His final version also seems more about Bruckner and less about Karajan's admittedly thrilling manipulation of the score in the 1975 version. The version that introduced me to the work was Solti's VPO recording; I still regard it highly as one of that conductor's few successful Bruckner outings. Next came Jochum/DG; a disappointment. Then came Karajan/1975, and for the first time I really "got" the work's vast dimensions and "apocalyptic" qualities.

HVK with BPO was my first 8th. 4 sides on vinyl. Wand's live and late BPO is a favorite.

Apparently Karajan wanted to do Bruckner a bit earlier with DG but they thought Jochum’s sufficed. As you say shows how unpopular it must have been. I must say I love Jochum’s crazy Dresden 8 for its brass! Ps love the quote on your shirt.

Dave, I'd like to recommend Karajan's fabulous Saint Florian 1970's Unitel DVD performance. In many ways Karajan achieves a mystical flow and power there that come through for me more strongly than in his other three recordings. Perhaps the venue of Saint Florian and Bruckner's time there still retain the deep spirit "of the place" because Karajan here seems to surrender himself into the work in ways that for me he did not realize as fully in his other renditions. A truly magnificent performance! I do like also the 1975 performance that you recommend, but it seems to me that the Saint Florian releases an additional transcendental dimension to the work.

Jochum's Bruckner was sold in The Netherlands in the 1970s. Bruckner, thanks to Van Beinum and Haitink, was always alive in my country.

Beautiful Karajan at his best

It’s funny, yesterday you talked about how Parsifal used to put you to sleep (during the prelude! I can understand if that happened during Act I before Parsifal shows up after only an hour…) and took forever to get into it, when I liked it the first time I really gave it a listen. It may have helped that I was in my 40s instead of my teens. Anyway today it’s Bruckner’s 8th, a work you clearly love and have forever while I’m still trying to get into it. And I have Suitner/Berlin Staatskapelle. Go figure. I’ll get there sometime. Maybe I’ll listen to Karajan/VPO. I don’t need the reference per se, just a good one where the musicians get the music and do it justice. Thanks for the very interesting series.

Have you done a video over the horrors of listening to Classical Music on vinyl? I grew up in a house that was transitioning from vinyl to CD. I heard the horrors first hand. " race to the turntable in the middle of a Bruckner or Shostakovich movement. Flip the album, prepare the side and try to get back into the music".

Interesting that Karajan, who I generally associate with disinterest on brass sounds, was able to set the standard for a Bruckner symphony. I’ve actually never heard it. Given how much I like the 8th generally, I guess I owe it to myself to give it a listen eventually.

Bruckner's 8th is nominated as the 'Apocalyptic' in the 1964 edition of the Guinness Book of Records (longest instrumental symphony) so the nickname is at least 60 years old.