Alright, alright - I'll try to contribute something useful here. You see, as I get older and more curmudgeonly (sp?), I become less enchanted with the standard line of Austro-German symphonists. Like Mahler - THE DUDE, as far as I'm concerned - I like the Schumann symphonies about the best of them; that, and the full line of Haydn symphonies. Brahms?/Bruckner? - the less discussed, the better in my book. But allow me to throw something of a wrench into the works now.
Even from the very start, I felt that there was something fundamentally wrong with the Bruckner 8th. I've NEVER had that strong, devotional feeling that so many people seem to get from this work. In short, the ending simply isn't strong enough to justify such a long, bombastic, and elephantine work. From a purely technical standpoint, I feel that the first movement is the strongest. Then I discovered the first version (at that time, only the Inbal recording existed of the first version).
While the first version is obviously more flawed, it's also far more characteristic of earlier Bruckner. It's very much a younger man's work. Some people can't handle the loud coda at the end of the first movement - in major, no less! - that exists in Bruckner's first version. But I believe that loud appendage in major, much better sets up the rest of the symphony; and thus, the genuine "tone" of the work in general. At the very least, anyone who can look at Bruckner in a more objective, more "historic" context (i.e. academic), has to admit that two fundamentally different Bruckner 8ths exist. I prefer the earlier version because I believe that it far better represents Bruckner's original concept and feelings about the work. I like the recording of the first version with Dennis Russell Davies on Arte Nova.
Another Bruckner 8 that I like - one that would be considered totally blasphemous to any true Bruckner buff - is the one that was recorded for EMI by Klemperer. Klemp takes most of the finale far slower than usual, but also puts a couple of good-size cuts in it. Like myself, Klemperer felt that Bruckner simply overextended himself in the finale. In general, finales are not always Bruckner's "forte", shall we say (think of the weird finale to Bruckner 4). But in the long haul, I find Klemp's slower but slightly truncated version easier to digest. Hey, that's just me. I greatly prefer the Mahler 8th to the Bruckner 8th (and feel the exact opposite, when it comes to 9th symphonies)
Barry
