Search - Anton Bruckner, Günter Wand, NDR Symphony Orchestra :: Bruckner: Symphony No. 8

Gunther's Wand's pathway to heaven

Larry VanDeSande | Mason, Michigan United States | 11/27/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It has been written that the Bruckner 8th symphony is the realization of the Romantic symphony, that everything the Romantic symphony contained from the time of Beethoven's Eroica is reflected in this score.



No conductor in the last century was more dedicated to Bruckner than Gunther Wand. A recording artist of relatively few composers, all in the central German repertoire, Wand was among the most prolific Bruckner specialists of the late century.



Over the span of two decades he recorded the complete Bruckner cycle with a symphony from Cologne, recorded many of them again with the Hamburg orchestra of this recording, and later recorded newer versions at century's end with the esteemed Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.



He recorded Bruckner's mighty 8th symphony four times; this was his second recording. While Furtwangler, Karajan and Jochum have been more readily identified with Bruckner's music, no single recording captures the gravity, religious fervor and majesty of the Bruckner apocalypse known as the 8th symphony.



This recording, the accumulation of several concerts during a 1988 festival in the Lubeck Cathedral, makes a star of the cathedral. What separates this recording from all other Bruckner 8s is the natural responsiveness of the cathedral and its affect on the totality of Wand's music making.



Because of this, when the musical grandeur ends, Bruckner's score reverberates in memory in Lubeck. Due the exceptional technical detail given to this production, you too can luxuriate in Bruckner's intermittent cathedral sized outpourings of joy, wonder, grief, confusion and ecstasy.



A simple Austrian, Bruckner desired merely to make music and celebrate God during his lifetime. Until Mahler championed his scores in the 20th Century, Bruckner was rarely accepted as part of the Viennese musical line of Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms. In particular, his 8th symphony was viewed as a "symphonic boa constrictor", the unsympathetic moniker offered by the Brahms camp and copied by many critics.



In our frenetic society, we understand the score represents Bruckner's path to God, fulfillment and eternity. This recording, more than any in the history of recorded music, presents the personal bridge to Elysium Bruckner must surely have visualized as he penned the Adagio, a rare time in musical history where a composer meets God.



Wand re-recorded this in Berlin for DG at the end of his life; that CD is still on the market. While RCA/BMG has not re-released this 8th, Arkiv Music filled the chasm by buying the rights and releasing it through their site. If it is available here, you must sample it. You will never again think the same about the music, for the rendition transcends music and all we know of musicmaking. It takes us on a trip to heaven, to serenity."

Still kind of obscure and underrated, this is the greatest r

dv_forever | Michigan, USA | 01/20/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In 1988, the great Karajan recorded this symphony live with the Vienna Philharmonic to great acclaim and it is still regarded as among the very finest accounts ever made. Even Leonard Bernstein fawned over Karajan's mastery of the Bruckner 8th. But what most classical music fans don't know is that a second-tier, provincial conductor by the name of Gunter Wand also made an out of this world recording of this majestic symphony just the year before in 1987. A live recording in the Lubeck Cathedral that should captivate most listeners upon hearing it.



Gunter Wand is a very sane, literalist conductor and most are aware of him by now as he was heavily promoted by both RCA and British classical music magazines. There is nothing remotely awe-inspiring about his persona or reputation like with Furtwangler in this music. Nor is there any inherent perversity with Wand like you constantly find in the infamous Bruckner acolyte, Sergiu Celibidache. And of course it goes without saying that Wand is not as well known as Karajan and that's why this great Lubeck Cathedral recording continues to live on in relative obscurity. Wand re-recorded a lot of Bruckner with the Berlin Philharmonic in the 1990s, furthermore obscuring this inspirational Bruckner 8th. Since you can hear Wand lead the Berlin Philharmonic, why settle for the NDR orchestra, right? Wrong!



This shouldn't stop anyone from seeking out this performance because it's a masterpiece from an interpretive standpoint as well as from an engineering perspective. The acoustical reality of this magnificent cathedral is captured to a degree that makes this record stand out in a sea of Bruckner 8ths from the past and the present. The adagio is the highlight as it usually is with truly inspired conductors and although the big codas of the first and last movements don't ring out with the same Teutonic strength of Karajan, this record is none the worse for it.



A typically literalist conductor like Wand did pull off performances that were exceptional and this is an example of that. I won't persist in writing a long review as the other reviewers have already eloquently described the merits of this record. I'll just tip my proverbial hat towards Gunter Wand and the RCA engineers and this is coming from someone who doesn't consider himself a big Bruckner fan by any measure. But when greatness appears, you'd be foolish not to admire it. This symphony is a work of consummate spiritual fervor and should frighten any postmodern secular humanist into appreciation of what can be achieved by an artist who creates not for fame or money or art for art's sake, but for God and God alone. Amen!"

Perfection in a great cathedral

jgri | New York, NY, USA | 04/05/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have heard Wand conducting the 8th several times (unfortunatly not this one but later ones) and the last eight he gave is the most memorable performance I have ever heard. The audience was stunned, speachless and physically eshausted by the sheer experience of what had just happened. I couldn't talk for about 15 minutes. This one comes close to it and peaks it in one aspect - the sound of the cathedral, optimally engineered by the NRD's own engineers, who are used to the volumnous acoustics of the church. The end of the third movements gets me into tears just by the beauty of the sound. Wands recording with the BPO is an experience by itself but this one can not be replaced by it, even though unfortunatly the brass is a bit off key at the finale. Just imagine - Bruckner 8 in a cathedral. This is exactly what you got here (and btw the 9th symphony is recorded at the same location, gorgious recording as well)."