Bruckner’s No. 7 meant in several ways new beginnings: not only was it different from its predecessors where tonal language and formal structure are concerned, but it was also the first symphony to have brought the composer, meanwhile 60 years old, the success he had been missing for so long. After its premiere in Leipzig followed by subsequent performances in other German cities, No. 7 was performed in Amsterdam, Chicago, New York, Berlin, Budapest, and London. And, of course, in Vienna, which for many years had been very critical towards Bruckner, the composer.
Soon after finishing No. 7, Bruckner composed Symphony No. 8, his most extensive one. However, after being told by his good friend, the conductor Hermann Levi, that he couldn’t quite get familiar with it, Bruckner - again plagued by self-doubts - immediately started the revision of the score, a process that took him quite a few years. Symphony No. 8 has thus two versions, the original one from 1887 (to be heard on this recording, under the baton of Eliahu Inbal – one of the first conductors to reintroduce it in the concert halls) and the revisioned version from 1890.
