Herbert Blomstedt conducts Bruckner's Symphony No. 5

Jeff Dunn on February 3, 2012
Herbert Blomstedt

 

For those of us who exult in the thunder and shine of massed brass, Anton Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony is nirvana. Its last movement, modeled after Beethoven’s Ninth but with trumpets to tubas as its chorus, is a must-hear for the orchestral power-hungry. Moreover, it features a gigantic fugue and a thrilling harmonic key twist borrowed from the “Wanderer” theme in Wagner’s opera Siegfried. S.F. Symphony’s Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt, expert in this repertoire, devotes the entire concert to Bruckner’s monument, a testament to the lofty aims of the 19th-century empire builders.