Bruckner: The 9 Symphonies

'Daniel Barenboim and the Berlin Philharmonic have given us one of the finest (and certainly the best-recorded) Bruckner Sixths of all time – this represents a major landmark in Brucknerian discography.' Fanfare

'This is superb Bruckner sound, spacious and clear, with strings, woodwind and brass at once unerringly ‘placed’ and finely matched.' Gramophone

This 9-CD set brings together Daniel Barenboim’s landmark Bruckner Symphonies Cycle with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded between 1991 and 1997. The cycle represents magnificent interpretations by one of the world’s great orchestras, steeped in the Bruckner tradition, led by a conductor whose performances of Bruckner symphonies have attracted great acclaim.

Bruckner wrote his first symphony when he was 40 years old; when it was premiered, he was 44. A deeply religious Austrian of peasant origins, he taught and played the organ until, at the age of 30, he decided to become a full-time musician. After being introduced to the works of Wagner and hearing his first performance of a complete Wagner opera, he began composing himself. Timid, insecure, and subject to great self-doubt, he made many changes to his symphonies, some of which exist in several versions. He was writing the last of six versions to the coda of his 9th symphony on the day he died in 1896 at the age of 72.

Bruckner composed Helgoland for male chorus and symphony orchestra in 1893, at the time he was starting to write his 9th, and final, symphony. The work, to a text by Silberstein, has rarely been recorded (Helgoland is a small German island in the North Sea near the mouth of the Elbe River and a popular contemporary vacation spot).