8th symphony concert

In the fall of 1887, Anton Bruckner sent the score of his 8th Symphony to his “artistic father,” Hermann Levi—who by that time was no longer the court conductor in Karlsruhe but the general music director in Munich—with the words: “May it find favor!” But Levi recommended a revision, and that led to groundbreaking success: After another three years, Bruckner had completed a new version, which premiered at the Vienna Musikverein in 1892, won over even the ever-critical Brahms, and became Bruckner’s greatest triumph. After each movement, the composer had to appear before the audience, and at the end he was crowned with no fewer than three laurel wreaths. The longest of Bruckner’s nine symphonies traverses, musically, every conceivable high and low, ranging from the somber “Blick auf die Totenuhr” to an allusion to the optimism-sparking “Deutscher Michel.” A “mystery” even to the composer himself, the Eighth Symphony is regarded by many as the “crown of 19th-century music” and holds special significance for Georg Fritzsch personally as well.