Anton Bruckner's Eighth Symphony (1890), one of the last of the great Romantic symphonies, is a grandly complex masterpiece. Its critical reception has been fascinatingly contentious. Its music, at once extensive and distilled, directly confronts the problem of the symphony after Beethoven and after Wagner. This book explores this many-faceted work from several angles. It documents the complicated and often misunderstood history of the symphony's composition and revision and offers an accessible guide to its musical design. It demonstrates, by means of a study of well-known recordings, how performance styles have evolved in this century. It also revisits the conventional wisdom about the various versions and editions of the symphony and comes to some provocative new conclusions.

This book explores Bruckner's Eighth Symphony (1890) from several angles, offering an accessible guide to its musical design.
Reviews
'What [this book] does reveal is enough to keep Bruckner-enthusiasts agonising and arguing for decades.' BBC Music Magazine



Book Information
ISBN 9780521632263
Author Benjamin M. Korstvedt
Format Hardback
Page Count 146
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 340g
Dimensions(mm) 216mm * 140mm * 13mm