"What makes the Eighth Symphony truly remarkable for me is the richness of its atmosphere,” said Sarastre of Bruckner's last completed work in the genre. The creative process was not a simple one: the composer revised the work several times and had to wait for years before anybody dared to agree to conduct it. The Budapest Festival Orchestra is performing the "Haas” second version from 1890, which the conductor believes reflects much more of the composer's personality.
Bruckner grew up in a strict and puritanical family in a small village, and had already passed his 40th birthday when he started to use the vast knowledge he had amassed for the purpose of composing music. His monumental symphony, an hour and a half in length and dedicated to Emperor Franz Josef, continues to divide audiences to this day. The work forces listeners to confront demons, fears and doubts and leads them to dark and shocking places in the composer's imagination. On the other hand, the splendour and power of the piece are breathtaking, and it also includes innocence, fragility and beauty. Hugo Wolf, the composer of lieder who was also Bruckner's friend, described the Eighth as "the work of a giant, and one that surpasses all of the master's previous symphonies in terms of its spiritual dimension, its richness and its magnitude.”

Presented by: Budapest Festival Orchestra