Six great composers, six landmark symphonies, a top orchestra and its
star conductor Kent Nagano - these are the components of an extraordinary
classical-music television event. Shot in High Definition, it takes a
bold and innovative approach to the recording of classical music. Boom
and tracking shots, quick cuts, remote-controlled cameras - stylistic
means previously used chiefly for pop music recordings give the programs
an up-to-the-minute look and feel. A team of more than 30 specialists
makes sure that viewers enjoy a truly cinematic experience. The programs
also go new ways by featuring entertaining, historically founded animated
sequences illustrating episodes from the lives of the composers.
Backstage interviews with the musicians and excerpts from their rehearsals
let us share in the spirit of their music-making. Conductor Kent Nagano
also relates what is of special importance to him in each work, and offers
fascinating insights on the origin and context of the work in question.
The main element of each episode is the live recording of a concert from
the Berlin Philharmonie. Kent Nagano is one of the most successful and
high-profile conductors of today. He has led all the major orchestras of
New York, London, Berlin, Vienna, Paris... In 2000 he was named artistic
director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. In fall 2006 he
succeeded Zubin Mehta as General Music Director of the Bavarian State
Opera.
Bruckner considered this work as the artistic crowning point of his
career. He began working on it in 1884 in a mood of optimism and
self-confidence such as he had never known before and which was no doubt
colored by the triumph obtained by his Seventh Symphony. The influence
of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony clearly emerges in the soft string tremolo
and the rhythm of the principal theme in the opening bars of the work.
Bruckner himself regarded the Adagio of the Eighth as the greatest
movement in any of his symphonies. The work was first performed by the
Vienna Philharmonic on 18 December 1892 under the direction of Hans
Richter. Hugo Wolf, who attended the concert, wrote: "This Symphony is
the creation of a giant."
The DVD is also released within the complete "Kent Nagano conducts classical masterpieces" DVD package which is available in selected stores worldwide and through Amazon or JPC.