A poet once wrote that Bruckner’s Eighth Symphonywould make a good peace treaty between humans and whales. Bruckner lived inlandlocked Austriaand did not intend to evoke whales, the way for instance Alan Hovhaness did inhis 1970 And God Created Great Whalesby blending recordings of actual whale songs into his orchestral fabric.
What the poet meant was that this music goes so deepinto the human heart that whales might well feel it deep in their own hugehearts as a bridge of sympathy between the two species. The opening movementexpresses dark tragedy that not only humans have suffered, but that whales alsohave suffered via human harpoons.
The second movement, by contrast, expresses atremendous exuberance akin to playful whales leaping above the waves for sheerjoy. The third movement, one of the most monumental and beautiful expressionsof human melancholy in all of music, might well also resonate in whales sad to diea natural death, let alone an explosive harpoon. This third quarter of thesymphony transforms sorrow into something tender and sublimespiritual in asense beyond any creed.
The fourth movement, the finale, is an eruption ofindomitable triumph over all the tragedies and sorrows the human heart, orwhale heart, can feel. Alas, we know that joy doesn’t always triumph oversorrow, but we keep invokingand putting our energy behindthe possibility of amore joyous, less tragic existence.
Like much of Mahler, the Bruckner Eighth’s openingmovement seems to foresee the turmoil of the 20th century. The 80-minutefour-movement symphony as a whole provides a powerful catharsis for all life’ssorrows, and ends in cascades of invincible affirmation.
The MilwaukeeSymphony Orchestra (MSO) under guest conductor Lawrence Renes at the Marcus Centerwill perform Bruckner’s mighty Eighth Symphony at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday,Nov. 13-14. Renes came to international attention in 1995 when at age 25 hereplaced an ailing Riccardo Chailly in leading the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in aformidable program of Strauss’ EinHeldenleben and Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra. Broadcast on Dutch TV,this highly successful performance became the basis for a documentary on Renestitled A Dream Debut.
Re-energized and sounding better than ever under itsnew music director, Edo de Waart, the MSO has wowed Milwaukee music lovers during its first fourprograms of the season. It will be interesting to see how it does under itssecond guest conductor this season.
