Bruckner: Symphony No 8 / Messiaen: Couleurs De La Cité Céleste – Pierre-Laurent Aimard

   in Classical Music (Jul, 2018)
Caught in spectacular sound, this is a good but not great performance of Bruckner’s mighty edifice conducted by the LSO’s then-Music Director-designate. Film director Corentin Leconte ensures non-interventionist camerawork; the LSO is on top form, the full dynamic range on display.

Rattle conducts Bruckner’s revised 1889/90 version of the symphony from memory, using antiphonally-placed violins for clarity. The string sound throughout is beautifully rich, the brass magisterial. Rattle conveys the expanse of the first movement well; the Scherzo is dynamic, full of fantasy. But the Adagio, which jettisons the composer’s caveat ‘doch nicht schleppend’, becomes more Mahlerian than Brucknerian in Rattle’s hands.

A batonless Sir Simon, reminding us of his firebrand …