Bruckner Symphony No_ 8

This 1996 Pierre Boulez performance of Anton Bruckners monumental Eighth, and last completed, Symphony took place in the St. Florian Church (Stiftskirche St. Florian) in Linz, Austria; it is here that Bruckner is buried, where he was organist and where themes of this symphony were first heard in an organ improvisation played by him in 1886. Boulez's much discussed interpretations, never, as was here, without controversy, tend toward sparkling clarity of musical structure without significant loss of the works rich, emotive expressiveness.