Symphony No. 8 in C Minor

Performed only three times during Bruckner’s lifetime, the immense Symphony No. 8, considered the composer’s most awesome and sweeping symphony, took over five years to write and revise. Symphony No. 8 premiered on December 18th, 1892 by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Hans Richter, and was met with mixed criticism. Eduard Hanslick described the symphony as “interesting in detail, but strange as a whole, indeed repellent,” while Hugo Wolf wrote that the symphony was “the work of a giant,” and that it “surpasses the other symphonies of the master in intellectual scope, awesomeness, and greatness.”