Bruckner is not an easy composer, you have to listen to some time before understand it better. I had this problem with him. Today he is one of my top five composer of all times. The Adagios of his late symphonies are the best compositions I have ever heard.
@antoinepetrov The Handel of Oratorios are very good too, maybe it would be my number 6. But he is good in Oratorios, not and all styles he composed. He was a great melody composer, as good as Mozart maybe, and a fantastic choral music composer. I studied Handel very much to understand why Mozart and Beethoven said, even in their last years, that Handel was the best composer ever for them. I spent 20 years to know Handel's oratorios, - watching one by one, today I know 22 oratorios of his 23, (just lacking the Handel's Brockes Passion) , and I understood why Mozart and Beethoven respected him so much.
Bruckner's 7th symphony was the first Bruckner I had ever heard, and it was live in London 25+ years ago. By chance, I'll be attending a Bruckner concert in Prague in 90 minutes. After all, 2024 is the 200th anniversary year of Bruckner's birth.
I think the otherwordly idiosyncrasies of Bruckner mentioned above are at best mapped in the Adagio of the seventh symphony and the soaring and floating emphasis iuxtapositoned to the quiet and calm moments in this set are something I do miss for years and I long to hear this Adagio without the yelling and shouting full of downright ferocity I told of getting ever so more and more and more... ...and I thank God to be able to perceive this music the way I do the way I feel hearing this music and the moments I do are precious no pecuniary worth could catch up to. Le p'tit Daniel
It’s the only one I listened to for about three decades - then the 8th - two decades later the 2nd - then the rest except the 5th for some reason. Musical backbone - as a meditation - to this grateful life…his appears to have been a life of wordless obedience to the Catholic faith….and a head full of close encounters of nine kinds..!❤
It is absolutely magnificent and one of the most powerful segments in all music. Barenboim's Berlin Phil recoding (made in the 90's) is utterly devastating and to me the best version available.
The Bruckner's Codas are great. In all his mature symphonies there is a moment when we have a general pause, it's when we know that the coda is coming. The coda from 8th (last movement) is typical too. There is a pause and it comes.
This was the second Bruckner Symphony I got to know as a teenaged horn player, the first was the 4th, and I was lucky enough to play the Seventh in an orchestra eventually. I don't like picking out favourite symphonies when asked, but there is something so emotionally satisfying about this work. From the tentative start to its victorious and sonorous E major ending, it never seems to lose it's grip on you. Of course, I grew up with Haitink's 1960's Concertgebouw recording on vinyl but I'll never forget the impact that Eugen Jochum's mighty reading with the Berlin Philharmonic on DG made on me and I recall attending a memorable performance Jochum gave with the LSO in London's Royal Festival Hall in 1978 - which can be heard on RU-vid. I love listening to Sir Simon talk about music and his use of the word 'prayer' is just so right with this work. The opening motif (interesting that it's said that Bruckner heard the main theme played on violas by angels in a dream; although one of them must have been playing a french horn, surely), does seem to be a prayerful offering to a higher being or place, as it ignites the beginning of this magical symphony. Thanks for posting this insightful look into Sir Simon's thoughts on a much-loved work.
I recall reading about the remains of Schubert being disinterred in Vienna in 1888 and Bruckner taking the opportunity to examine what was left of the great composer's corpse and how he would gently run his fingers through the remainder of Schubert's luxuriant hair that had stayed behind.
I got that story over thirty-five years ago from a book entitled "Nervous Splendor-Vienna 1888/1889" by Frederic Morton which primarily concerned the probable suicide of the Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary and his seventeen year old mistress Mary Vetsera.@@DonnaGisellaTranchel
@@haledwards4642 Interesting! The Schubert thing... The Mayerling Drama I knew... Will read up! If You do not know - already - there's this Count of St Germaine... Who was he? Is there a body in his grave? Of course - I do NOT believe in some of the story - still - a very interesting guy! Even Voltaire found him intriguing AND irritating! Thanks! 🦩✨
I know nothing about the Count. I've done a quick, short read about him on Wikipedia (take it for what it's worth). There, he's described as a man with several aliases such as French, German, English, Russian, Italian, Spanish and Hungarian names. He must have been loaded at some point.@@DonnaGisellaTranchel
Heard of Bruckner years before I finally caught on to his symphonies. It took a concert performance of the 6th, where I could see the joy on the timpanist's face in that 1st movement coda, to get me caught on. But also an unsatisfactory performance of that symphony overall (from a structural coherence standpoint), just to pique my interest to compare with those who had played the 6th better, e.g. Klemperer, Wand, etc
This may seem extremely controversial, but I never perceived Bruckner's music to be, in the sense of Wagner, Strauss and Mahler, "epic". On the contrary, is see the sheer beauty stemming from textural simplicity, kind of like giantly orchestrated Schubert, but with far more exotic chord relations. Some pieces by Bruckner have slightly minimalistic sections (probably a terrible word, but i meant ostinati and repetition). With many gorgeous exceptions to this, Bruckner's music is the total opposite of business, the opposite of hastle and complexity. Imagine a countryman waking up to the same routine every day, and his loved ones and God give him unimaginable joy.
The 7th is one of my favourites. It’s Bruckner's 200th birthday today! I’m an indie artist who released the song ‘Anton’ about his life and unrequited loves. I hope no one minds me sharing the music video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Y8qWL61Mg6I.html
A mind not critical enough to understand the Covid situation and players chosing to wear masks is at one with the poverty of aesthetic insight here. Totally abject, a meltdown of our civilization.
People don't understand Bruckner's symphonies structure because he worked with 3 themes, not 2 like Mozart, Beethoven or Brahms. This is the first point.
@@ianng9915 I know them quite well. It's pretty rare to find someone who actually defends Brucker's symphonic form. Even his fanaticals readily acknowledge the obvious deficts in structure.
Yes, Bruckner was otherworldly. And how is it honouring to such a man and his work to have him performed by those so enmeshed in the worldly vice of sniveling cowardice as seen by those tamely submitting to wearing covid masks. This is an outright disgrace a I only watch this one where they do this that I might hear the commentary about my favourite composer
Bruckner's music has a way of "dwelling" in a moment without struggle or urgency to leave. Maybe this was part of his spirituality. I found it quite Zen. I found a similar spirit in Messiaen, especially L'Ascension and Éclairs (both composers were Catholic).
Bruckner's music transports me to a boat that is drifting in the Pacific Ocean. Looking everywhere I only see sea, the waters are calm but sometimes gigantic waves appear. It's a very subjective idea of Bruckner's symphonies, but this concept of "oceanic music" seems very much in line with what I hear in his symphonies.