How did you discover Bruckner's music?

[Quijote]

Might that be an idea for a new thread? "Music that makes you want to grab your crotch"? I mean, the link between sexual urge and the sheer "physicality" of music is an obvious one, innit? Luckily, I have always managed to avoid grabbing my crotch when playing in concert. Too busy sawing away on my "open strings" (Cf. Reiner T).

[Quijote]

Some "rep" please for this latest outburst of quixotic lunacy. Back to Bruckner now, if you will be so kind. Ed?
[No comment. Ed.]

[Quijote]

(Common time, ff, "moderato", 2+3 "Bruckner" pattern, descending):
E-flat / B-flat / A-flat - G - F - / E-flat ...

[Quijote]

Nobody got the theme I quoted above? Some here on this forum (the less cultured ones such as Philidor's father, ReinerT and the rest of the anti-Bruckner faction) will say it's the theme tune to Star Wars. Massively clever people such as I will have identified the main theme of Bruckner's 4th (first movement).

[Quijote]

Anyway, what I'd like to report here was the wonderful concert of Bruckner's 8th played by the Heidelberg Philharmonic (in the same town) that I attended recently. I was asked to write a review that will be published in the upcoming issue of the Bruckner Journal, a snip at just 30€ for 3 issues per year (rate of exchange depending on the upcoming Greek debacle). It is always difficult to write intelligent and meaningful reviews, as you know, given that one has an enormous baggage of set ideas based on previous concerts and preferred CDs. In any case, this was a top-notch concert. There are those (perhaps too many) that consider Bruckner as a "wind-bag" (see elsewhere on this forum), but as Balthazar-baby honey might point out, such comments come from those who have little and uninformed listening experience of this symphonic master.

[Quijote]

Yes, and the more one listens to Bruckner, the shorter the symphonies seem to be. I'm looking forward to receiving the recent Bruckner 9th CD with Rattle / Berlin Phil, with the latest (and I understand the final, definitive, there-will-be-no-more) reconstruction of the IVth movement. Anybody here already heard it?

[Quijote]

I made a mistake with the price of the Bruckner Journal mentioned above. It's only 15€ for a year's subscription. [Stop plugging that confounded journal. You're fired. Ed.]

[autolycus]

Originally Posted by Quijote

Yes, and the more one listens to Bruckner, the shorter the symphonies seem to be. I'm looking forward to receiving the recent Bruckner 9th CD with Rattle / Berlin Phil, with the latest (and I understand the final, definitive, there-will-be-no-more) reconstruction of the IVth movement. Anybody here already heard it?

I heard some of the finale yesterday on BBC Radio 3, tho' I must say I am quite happy with the 3-movement version. Such a heart-breaking end to a magnificent life's work.

P.S. I don't think the word 'definitive' is appropriate or right in conjunction with 'performing versions, let alone with performances.

[Quijote]

Originally Posted by autolycus

P.S. I don't think the word 'definitive' is appropriate or right in conjunction with 'performing versions, let alone with performances.

When I wrote "definitive" above, I meant that this is the last and final effort of the SMPC reconstruction team to give us their artists' impression of the finale (unless other missing-presumed-lost sketch pages turn up). I am sure we have not heard the last word from other scholar-composers in the meantime, however.
The CD I ordered (Rattle/Berlin Phil) has still not arrived.

[Quijote]

On the other hand, I am not at all happy with the 3-movement torso, and fully applaud the efforts of the SMPC team, Carragan and others to give us an inkling of what could have been.