Bruckner's symphonies in their original sound
Higher

Symphony No. 8 in C minor is "one of the most astonishing creations not only of Bruckner, but of symphonic world literature as a whole; it has rightly been called 'the crown of 19th century music'." This judgment applies to the "1890 version" which premiered in 1892 altough it took until 1973 before the "1887 version" was performed for the first time. Anton Bruckner had begun this version in the summer of 1884 and, after its completion on 10 August 1887, he sent it to the conductor, Hermann Levi. The latter was baffled by the sheer size of the score and advised reworking it. The badly hurt composer finally did this as he realised that the size of the symphony exceeded any contemporary powers of imagination. In it, the first movement is followed by the Scherzo, moving the slow movement, in which the harp is used, uniquely for Bruckner, to the third position, while  the themes of all four movements are bundled together and sound simultaneously in vertical layering at the end of the monumental finale.

The 'Eighth' is preceded by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber's famous Battalia, a lavishly scored musical battle painting, which, in terms of its exaggeration, is certainly related to the symphony and, thematically, also builds a bridge to Bruckner's own programme-musical interpretation of its finale, in which he claimed to have set the "Ride of the Cossacks", "military music" and "fanfares" to music.

These two masterpieces, which represent the Mount Everest of their respective genres, will be performed by Ars Antiqua Austria, Gunar Letzbor's ensemble for new baroque music, and the Champs-Élysées Orchestra, directed by its founder and director, Philippe Herreweghe. Two absolute top formations on the field of historical performance practice.

Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644-1704)

Battalia. Suite in D major, C 61 (1673)

Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)

Symphony No. 8 in C minor, WAB 108 (1884-87) "1887 version".

Ars Antiqua Austria

Gunar Letzbor | Violin & Direction

Orchestre des Champs-Élysées

Philippe Herreweghe | Conductor