Bruckner

"I always think we will win, but playing Libertadores midweek makes things tricky," says Bruckner.

Back in San Francisco, Salonen led a monumental performance of Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony, showing what his orchestra can be.

On my first day in Salzburg, I headed for an 11 a.m. concert featuring Riccardo Muti conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in Bruckner’s monumental Eighth Symphony.

His Liverpool recording of Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony, released in the spring, has a glow and grandeur that allows it to stand out in a very crowded field.

Instead, there were small pieces, quite a few by little-known composers, along with Bruckner motets, bits of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff and Bernstein.