- Purchase a product from the Music Store sold by Amazon.co.uk and receive Ł1 to use on an album download in our MP3 Store. Here's how (terms and conditions apply)
Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Product details
|
Track Listings
| 1. Symphony No. 8 in C minor |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
This recording of Bruckner's Eighth Symphony is from Barbirolli's last London concert, some 10 weeks before his death, when he knew heart problems might overtake him at any time. What better way to say goodbye than with one of the very greatest symphonies ever written? And this craggy, towering masterpiece is given as urgent a performance as you'll hear (complemented by vivid recorded sound). Pushing the tempo risks a grating superficiality, but Barbirolli more than gets away with it through sheer conviction (complete with podium-stamping and trademark sing-alongs). The terrifying Scherzo in particular goes along at a lick, but what shivers are sent up the spine. The vast Adagio contains messinesses in terms of ensemble, but give me this passion rather than "perfection" any time. However, as Barbirolli's friend Michael Kennedy says in his sleeve-note, the ageing, ailing maestro didn't lose his sense of architecture and feeling for a phrase as the emotion flowed--the outer movements are characterised by awesome control as Barbirolli plots his course up the massive musical rock faces. Sickly swansong? No way! Favourite performances such as those conducted by Haitink and Wand will feel a tad tame after this. --Andrew Green
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Downright awesome,
By A Customer
This review is from: Brucker: Symphony No. 8 (Audio CD)
This is the best Bruckner 8 by a long way - I have always felt a sense of duty in listening to this symphony. I ought to recognise how great it is and I ought to enjoy it but often it has just seemed very long and aimless . Not here this just blew me away This reading is utterly gripping. The circumstances of this concert make poignant reading but on its own terms it is quite one of the best performances of anything that I have ever heard
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Time and again,
By
This review is from: Brucker: Symphony No. 8 (Audio CD)
Time and again, I come back to this recording of what I consider to be the greatest symphony ever written. Every performance I hear both live and recorded, I judge against this recording. Its not perfect but the passion and commitment are so evident, it is compelling. A wonderful swansong from the conductor whom I saw once and was hooked forever on live classical music.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.6 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews) 16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Overwhelming recension of the "greatest" symphony,
By "billmacv" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Brucker: Symphony No. 8 (Audio CD)
It was with some reservations that I came to Barbirolli's 1970 live performance of Bruckner's Eighth Symphony, despite the excellent press it received in England (the British tend to be myopically chauvinistic when it comes to their own composers, conductors and performers, and all but canonize Barbirolli). At first the reservations seemed to hold. The sound, though remastered, remains on the harsh side, with a brash glare on the fortissimi (of which there are plenty). Any quiet passage (of which there are no lack, either) offered opportunity for much throat-clearing and hawking from the audience. The performance is on the rough-hewn side, with none of the gleaming polish one has come to expect from state-of-the-art studio recordings, with every note in place and in balance.None of this matters once Barbirolli's vision of the symphony begins to unfurl. It's a fiercely committed, impassioned performance -- Bruckner's vast Gothic spaces lit by Italianate fire. Not only is this the most emotionally gripping performance of the 8th I've heard, it's one of the most overwhelming performances of anything I've ever come across. There is a vocal minority which considers (pace Beethoven) Bruckner's last completed symphony to be the pinnacle of symphonic literature; Barbirolli's is the performance to help convince skeptics. 7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The spiritual, humane Brucknerian!,
By David Anthony Hollingsworth - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Brucker: Symphony No. 8 (Audio CD)
A foretaste to the highly acclaimed Boulez 1996 recording with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (VPO) under Deutsche Grammophon (DG)? Perhaps. Like Boulez, Horenstein, and even Jochum (though using the Novak edition), Barbirolli approaches the score with zest and a sense of urgency: a kind of dramatic exhuberence that would compel you to rise up in a hurry and say Halleluja. But are their performances emotionally and spiritually detached from this glorious score? Absolutely not. As with Horenstein, Jochum and Boulez, Barbirolli brings out the humanity of the score and of Bruckner. Since when should we look at his symphonies exclusively as musical cathedrals with its majestic structures? Indeed, the magic of Bohm, Barenboim, Wand, Karajan, Haitink, and Guilini rested in their ability in sustaining the monumental grandeur behind the symphonies. But, Barbirolli along with Jochum and Boulez give us other dimensions of Bruckner that shall equally be cherished. Horenstein approach is a wonderful synthesis of the majestic and the drama. To some extent, so is Barbirolli's.Michael Kennedy states in his sleeve notes that "For some conductors, the architectural splendor of Bruckner is their first consideration. For Barbirolli, it was humanity and spirituality." I agree to an extent, for the architectural splendor of Bruckner is inevitably a spiritual exercise deep in one's soul and subconscious: Wand, Barenboim (with the Chicago Symphony) and Karajan (with the VPO) are proven cases in point. But, Kennedy is absolutely right on Barbirolli. In the first and second movements, Barbirolli approaches them with fiery temperament and drive. His tempi are relentless and energetic, his impulsiveness obvious but never quite austere. His warmth is without question, though. The trio in the scherzo movement is nicely sustained and going to the Adagio, third movement, that sense of warmth is even more apparent. But, believe it or not, there is something of the architectural splendor in Barbirolli's approach. The dramatic edge of the first two movements and the finale are largely absent here. However, the passion accompanies the warmth admirably going into and beyond the glorious climax remarkably well-rendered here. The finale is exhuberently and idiomatically performed; it's well paced and dramatic and the ending lacks that Wagnerian grandeur that you'll see in Karajan's recording with the Vienna Philharmonic The performance of Barbirolli's Halle Orchestra is not entirely without flaws. The strings were not gifted with the sonority and the richness of the Vienna Philharmonic or the Concertgebouw. The brass is not particularly well-polished: a few crack notes prop up from time to time. But, the performance has fluency and commitment, especially given the fact that it was to be Barbirolli's last. The performance is not perfect. However, the insight behind it is special and Barbirolli gave us pure Bruckner without the Mahlerianism. A hyme of praise no question now or ever, no matter who you're asking. 4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An eloquent tribute to Barbirolli's artistry -- one of his best live recordings,
By Santa Fe Listener - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Brucker: Symphony No. 8 (Audio CD)
This recording has attracted eloquent and perceptive reviews (I wish Amazon would give us more from Andrew Green, who seems more sensible and astute than their usual run). The basic facts have been well laid out already: Barbirolli is urgent, adopts speeds fast enough to seem risky, emphasizes the shaping of phrases rather than grand "architecture" (I'm not sure anymore what this overused term actually means, even when I use it!), and defies his mortality with increased energy in this, his final concert in London before he died.
As to the recorded sound, I don't hear the glare and harshness that another reviewer complains about, just a degree of thinnness. In the general run of broadcasts unearthed by BBC Legends, I'd say that this one belongs in the top quarter. The Halle Orchestra is placed close to the mike, which exposes their lack of technical finesse, but we get few jarring bobbles. Just be aware that the edgy lower strings would nevre be mistaken for the Vienna Phil., or the sometimes catch-as-catch-can brass climaxes. (How many great musicians were willing to live and play in Manchester on a miserably low salary in 1970? We have to be realistic.) For all that, the orchestra must have sensed something, because they play with heartfelt commitment and on the whole surpass themselves. In all, I can add my voice to the other reviewers who were totally caught up in Barbirolli's eloquence. This is a fitting tribute to him, and perhaps one he consciously carved out, given his precarious medical condition. |
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
