An awful lot of Bruckner

The symphonies of Bruckner seem to attract a sort of reverence amongst many people, but we never really understood why. They just seemed awfully long. That said, we felt that it was probably just that we hadn't developed the skill of understanding them and I at least had vaguely resolved to do something to educate myself into Bruckner appreciation at some stage. So, fired with our new enthusiasm for concert going, we returned to Birmingham's Symphony hall last night to hear the old guy's 8th. Symphony - all 80 minutes of it.


Once again there was a pre-concert talk, and this proved to be a very helpful, if in hindsight rather defensive, insight into what was behind the first three movements. It was a shame that there wasn't time for the finale to be covered. The Hall was, I guess only about half full, not counting the 96 member CBSO - complete with nine French horns and no less than three harps! Each of the movements lasted twenty minutes or so and there were undoubtedly some wonderful passages: the recurring upward motifs in the scherzo, the generally serene slow movement and the magnificently dynamic beginning of the finale. But I was left with the feeling that there was nothing there which couldn't have been said much more effectively in half the time. We concluded that no, we just weren't going to "get" Bruckner.

Avrohom Leichtling, an internet friend of mine and a composer himself, responded to the news that we were off to hear Bruckner by railing against Bruckner's "gargoylian awkwardness" and writing that the music "lumbers along with all its seams showing, like Frankenstein's monster. You see all the parts stuck together. His grandiose austerity isn't so much profound as it is annoying". He concluded by asking me to "forgive the inconclusiveness of the finale". I only read the email when we got home but Avrohom was spot on.

So much for my attempt at autodidactic music appreciation. For us, Bruckner could also have been the subject of Rossini's jibe at Wagner: "His music has wonderful moments, but dreadful half hours"!