Симфония № 8 Антона Брукнера: История создания и версии

Symphony by Anton Bruckner

Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 in C minor, WAB 108, is the last symphony the composer completed. It exists in two major versions of 1887 and 1890. It was premiered under conductor Hans Richter in 1892 at the Musikverein, Vienna. It is dedicated to the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. This symphony is sometimes nicknamed The Apocalyptic, but this was not a name Bruckner gave to the work himself.

Bruckner began work on the Eighth Symphony in July 1884. Working mainly during the summer vacations from his duties at the University of Vienna and the Vienna Conservatory, the composer had all four movements completed in draft form by August 1885. He had also arranged for Bruckner's career to be supported in other ways, including financial assistance from the nobility, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Vienna. I find it impossible to perform the Eighth in its current form. I just can't make it my own! As much as the themes are magnificent and direct, their working out seems to me dubious; indeed, I consider the orchestration quite impossible Don't lose your courage, take another look at your work, talk it over with your friends, with Schalk, maybe a reworking can achieve something. By January 1888, Bruckner had come to agree with Levi that the symphony would benefit from further work. Early work of revision was carried out in the first movement and the Scherzo, expressed as pencil notations in their score. A distinct version of the Adagio – now called the "intermediate Adagio" or "Adagio of 1888" – was also retrieved and edited in 2004 by Dermot Gault and Takanobu Kawasaki. Thereafter, Bruckner concentrated on the new versions of the Fourth and Third. The emperor accepted Bruckner's request and also offered to help pay for the work's publication. Bruckner had some trouble finding a publisher for the work, but in late 1890 the Haslinger Schlesinger Lienau company agreed to undertake publication. Bruckner's associates Josef Schalk and Max von Oberleithner assisted with the publication process: Schalk prepared the musical text to be sent to the printer while Oberleithner corrected the proofs and also provided financial support. The symphony was eventually published in March 1892. It was the only one of Bruckner's symphonies to be published before its first performance.

By the time the 1890 revision was complete, Levi was no longer conducting concerts in Munich. As a result, he recommended that his protege Felix Weingartner, Kapellmeister of Mannheim, lead the first performance of the symphony. The premiere was twice scheduled to occur under the young conductor's direction during 1891, but each time Weingartner substituted another work at the last minute. Eventually the conductor told Bruckner that he was unable to undertake the performance because he was about to take up a new position at the Berlin Opera. However, Weingartner admitted, in a letter to Levi, that the real reason he was unable to perform the symphony was because the work was too difficult and he did not have enough rehearsal time: in particular, the Wagner tuba players in his orchestra did not have enough experience to cope with their parts. After a Munich performance by Levi was cancelled because of a feared outbreak of cholera, Bruckner focused his efforts on securing a Vienna premiere for the symphony. At last Hans Richter, subscription conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic, agreed to conduct the work. The first performance took place on 18 December 1892. Although some of the more conservative members of the audience left at the end of each movement, many of Bruckner's supporters were also present, including Hugo Wolf and Johann Strauss. (Korstvedt points out that this was less negative than Hanslick's reviews of Bruckner's earlier symphonies.) There were also many positive reviews from Bruckner's admirers. One anonymous writer described the symphony as "the crown of music in our time". Hugo Wolf wrote to a friend that the symphony was "the work of a giant" that "surpasses the other symphonies of the master in intellectual scope, awesomeness, and greatness". The symphony was slow to enter the orchestral repertoire. Only two further performances occurred during Bruckner's lifetime. The American premiere did not take place until 1909,

The symphony has four movements. The total duration varies by performance and the edition of the score used, but is typically around 80 minutes.

The symphony begins in a tonally ambiguous manner with a theme rhythmically reminiscent of the main theme of the first movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor and of the March in D minor of 1862. According to theorist Heinrich Schenker this passage is "like the beginning of the world."

Two complete autograph manuscripts of the symphony exist, dating from 1887 and 1890 respectively. More sketches exist from all phases of work on this symphony than for most of Bruckner's works. For example, thanks to the sketches, we can see the evolution of the opening theme. Part scores show that the tonal ambiguity of the symphony's opening was not how Bruckner originally envisaged the main theme: the rhythm was to fit an arpeggiated contour in C minor. The final opening is much less defined and hovers in more of a B flat major region, though it suggests several keys.

This was Bruckner's first version of the symphony, but was not published until 1972 in an edition edited by Leopold Nowak. There are enormous variants in orchestration, harmony, voice leading and motivic treatment between the two versions. In some sections one can almost speak of two different pieces, rather than two versions of the same work. Some significant differences from the more familiar later versions include a loud ending to the first movement and a different tonality for the climax of the slow movement. It is also notably longer than the 1890 version, and has a different instrumentation (the most significant consistent difference being that the 1890 version has triple rather than double woodwind throughout the first three movements). The double woodwind of the 1887 version gives a somewhat more austere character to the overall sound of the work. Some scholars support this version of the symphony. Bryan Gilliam, for example, argues that the later version (from 1890) is shorter and smoother, and is hence a dubious concession to the Brahms loving bourgeoisie of the time. The 1887 version was premiered by Hans Hubert Schönzeler for the BBC in 1973, and has thereafter been recorded by Dennis Russell Davies, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Eliahu Inbal, Georg Tintner, Michael Gielen, Kent Nagano, Simone Young, Franz Welser Möst and Fabio Luisi. A digitalisation of the North American premiere of the 1887 version by Tintner with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, Kingston, Ontario (Canada), 31 August 1982 (LP: Jubal 5003/4, 1982), and of a 2009 live performance by Gennadi Rozhdestvensky with the Bolshoi Orchestra can be heard on John Berky's website. The new edition by Paul Hawkshaw has been premiered by Peter Oundjian with the Yale Symphony Orchestra on 27 October 2017.

A copy of an intermediate version of the Adagio with an estimated date of 1888 exists in the Austrian National Library. This Adagio, which already requires triple woodwind, has been edited by Dermot Gault and Takanobu Kawasaki and recorded by Akira Naito with the Tokyo New City Orchestra. A MIDI version is also available. Intermediate versions of the other movements have been edited by William Carragan and performed by Gerd Schaller. <blockquote>This account of the Eighth was founded on individual, possibly non contemporaneous manuscripts rather than one complete copy. Thus it will always have to be regarded as experimental, not on the same editorial level as the firmly established manuscript versions of 1887 and 1890 and the printed version of 1892. But in it we have a fascinating view of the work in progress of Bruckner the eternal reviser, looking for the most expressive realization of his lofty thoughts and melodic inspiration. Against this, Leopold Nowak pointed out that there is no evidence of handwriting in the 1890 manuscript other than Bruckner's own;

This was the first publication of the symphony, and was also the version used at the first performance. It contains some relatively minor changes from the 1890 manuscript, the most notable being a six bar cut and a two bar repeated passage in the Finale. The alterations were made by Joseph Schalk and Max von Oberleithner, almost certainly without Bruckner's direct involvement, but were probably approved by the composer before publication. Korstvedt writes that "while the 1892 edition may not be "pure Bruckner" – whatever that might be – to all appearances Bruckner authorized it, and for that reason it needs to be taken seriously." This edition is available in complete recordings by Wilhelm Furtwängler, Hans Knappertsbusch, Josef Krips, William Steinberg, George Szell, Bruno Walter and Takeo Noguchi. Serge Koussevitzky also used this edition in his severely cut broadcast performance of 1947; this performance, which has been preserved on disc, amounts to a wholly new "edition".

Robert Haas published his edition of the Eighth Symphony in 1939. He based it on the 1890 autograph but included passages from 1887 that had been changed or omitted. The Gesamtausgabe describes it as a "Mischform", or mixed form. Nevertheless, it remains a beloved and, perhaps, the most frequently played and recorded edition of the work. Haas argued that Levi's comments were a crippling blow to Bruckner's artistic confidence, even leading him to "entertain suicidal notions", although Haas had no evidence for this. This led, Haas maintained, to Bruckner's three year effort to revise the Eighth Symphony and many of his earlier works. This line of thought supports Haas' editorial methods. Haas took what he admired from Bruckner's different versions and rolled them into his own version. He justified the rejection of various features of Bruckner's 1890 revision on biographical grounds: they are the ideas of a Bruckner who mistrusted his own judgment, and therefore non Brucknerian. The most significant omissions that Bruckner made (and therefore of Haas's restorations) are in the Adagio and Finale of the work. In addition, Haas inserted into the finale a transitional passage of eight bars from a sketch found in the library of the Kremsmünster Abbey (A KR C56 14e1), discarding five bars of Bruckner's own revision. Korstvedt has described these interventions as "exceed[ing] reasonable limits of scholarly responsibility". Despite its dubious scholarship, Haas's edition has proved enduringly popular: conductors such as Herbert von Karajan, Bernard Haitink and Günter Wand continued to use it even after the Nowak/1890 edition was published, while noted Bruckner conductor Georg Tintner has written that the Haas edition is "the best" version of the symphony and referred to Haas himself as "brilliant". On the other hand, Eugen Jochum used Haas's edition for his first recording, made in 1949, before Nowak published his edition, and Nowak's for his subsequent recordings, while Wilhelm Furtwängler, despite having given the premiere of the Haas score, reverted to the 1892 edition in his final years. The controversy over the Haas edition centers on the fact that its musical text was a fabrication of the editor never approved by Bruckner himself. In particular, Nowak, who succeeded Haas as principal editor of the Bruckner complete works, argued that there is little evidence for the psychological breakdown that Haas claimed Bruckner suffered upon Levi's rejection of the work. Bruckner's letters at the time suggest that he was frustrated by Levi's judgment (dismissing Levi as having a "hard time grasping things") and psychologically healthy. Bruckner's revisions, according to this view, are the result of his artistic perfectionism. Nowak therefore rejected Haas's approach by sticking closely to Bruckner's autograph scores.

As noted above, under the discussion of versions, Nowak left in 1955 an edition of the 1890 version and in 1972 an edition of the 1887 version.

Both versions will be published in the new Collected Edition. The new edition of the 1887 version corrects enough mistakes in the older print. Nevertheless, it is still very much the same score. In the first movement, the trumpet and horn passage based on the rhythm of the [main] theme in the Todesverkündigung [the annunciation of death], which gradually grows stronger, and finally emerges very strongly. At the end: surrender. Scherzo: Main theme – named deutscher Michel. In the second part, the fellow wants to sleep, and in his dreamy state cannot find his tune: finally, he plaintively turns back. Finale: At the time our Emperor received the visit of the Czars at Olmütz; thus, strings: the Cossacks; brass: military music; trumpets: fanfares, as the Majesties meet. In closing, all themes thus as deutscher Michel arrives home from his journey, everything is already gloriously brilliant. In the Finale there is also the death march and then (brass) transfiguration. Bruckner's associates report other comments that the composer is said to have made about the symphony. The coda to the first movement is "how it is when one is on his deathbed, and opposite hangs a clock, which, while his life comes to an end, beats on ever steadily: tick, tock, tick, tock" while in the slow movement "I have gazed too deeply into a maiden's eyes". In an unsigned programme note at the 1892 first performance Joseph Schalk elaborated Bruckner's program, adding references to Greek mythology (Aeschylus's Prometheus, Zeus or Cronus, etc.) mixed with a few Christian references such as the Archangel Michael.

Over the recorded lifetime of this symphony, significantly different approaches have been taken, including tempo choices and the choice of score. Wilhelm Furtwängler, in a live performance with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1944 used a modified Haas edition. On 29 September 1944, the Preussische Staatskapelle Berlin, conducted by Herbert von Karajan, recorded the last three movements of the 8th Symphony with the finale in experimental stereophonic sound. In his interpretation Karajan kept strict metre whereas "recordings from the 1940s typically present this passage [the reprise of the third subject group in the finale] as a grand accelerando rallentando, with a tempo increase of as much as 20 percent," while Karajan's recording "is a notable exception." The first commercial recording of the complete symphony was made by Eugen Jochum with the Hamburg State Philharmonic Orchestra in 1949 for Deutsche Grammophon. Jochum later recorded it in studio with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1964 for Deutsche Grammophon, and in 1976 with the Dresden Staatskapelle for EMI using the Nowak 1890 edition both times. Karl Böhm, in a studio recording with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1976 for Deutsche Grammophon used the Nowak 1890 edition, but with one Haas passage in the finale. In the last two decades of the 20th century, recordings tended to "set a broader basic tempo, abstain from dramatic tempo fluctuations – especially increases – and place great store by fullness of tone, precise ensemble, and textural clarity." Typically, this work lasts about 80 minutes, Herbert von Karajan and the aforementioned Günter Wand each recorded the Haas hybrid version more than once. After Eliahu Inbal recorded the 1887 version for the first time, other conductors have followed. Takashi Asahina has recorded a disc comparing excerpts from the Haas and Nowak editions.

The majority of recordings are based on this edition. Some conductors, as Wilhelm Furtwängler, Herbert von Karajan and Günter Wand have recorded it several times