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A cathedral in sound

ISO Classical Series Program No. 17
Hilbert Circle Theatre
May 16-17

For most symphony-goers, Anton Bruckner is an acquired taste. Last weekend, through the auspices of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and its music director Mario Venzago, a large Circle Theatre turnout got to taste the Austrian Romantic’s biggest “cathedral” in sound, his Symphony No. 8 in C Minor. A product of 1890 — six years before the composer’s death — and lasting an hour and a half (in the version used), the behemoth work takes all the Brucknerian compositional devices heard in his previous symphonies and extends them, amplifies and even beautifies them.

It offers such an aspect of finality that the ISO program notes mistakenly refer to it as his “last symphony,” whereas Bruckner wrote his three-movement Ninth Symphony afterward. Four gigantic movements — the second and third ordered for the first time from Scherzo to Adagio, rather than the opposite order seen in all his previous symphonic efforts — comprise Bruckner’s gargantuan Eighth.

I find it gargantuan in comparing it with Bruckner’s two-generations-younger Austrian colleague Gustav Mahler, also known for writing a similar number of huge symphonies. My consciousness of the Eighth’s length was causing me to squirm in my seat before the end of the Adagio, much less the equally long Finale.

To me, Bruckner’s symphonies are leaden; Mahler’s are not. Here’s the difference: A Bruckner orchestra is large in an unusual way. It is filled with strings, uses only paired winds, minimum percussion — often lying fallow — and greatly extended brass. In the Eighth, he adds four Wagner tuben (small tubas used in the Wagner Ring operas) to the trumpets, trombones, regular tuba and horns. Harmony, often cloyingly rich, dominates his musical syntax and is always unexpectedly modulating (changing key centers). His bar repetition is unnerving.

There are few hummable tunes or melodies; they are subsumed within the harmonic morass so as to become inaudible, non-memorable. Finally, rhythm as a compelling element is largely absent. Even in the scherzos, typically the fastest movements, the rhythmic pulse usually produces only equally spaced beats. Mahler used a much more balanced mix of melody, harmony, rhythm and instrumental color.

Still, many of the Bruckner harmonies in his Eighth are as lovely as he got. And Venzago essentially got what he was after in last Friday’s performance, though the playing occasionally became ragged in the Finale. Were the players as tired as I was?

Venzago’s “first half” featured a lively reading of Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins and Strings in D Minor, using our two concertmasters, Zach De Pue and principal guest Alexander Kerr. It lasted 15 minutes. Both Bach and Bruckner were very religious. And that’s where the resemblance ends.