Semyon Bychkov with Bruckner

Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 is evening-filling – not just because of its content, but also due to its duration of approximately 80 minutes. The conductor Semyon Bychkov is convinced that everything in this work revolves around Bruckner's relationship with God, and thus about a 'complex and conflict-ridden matter'. Bruckner himself referred to his last completed Symphony as Mystery, but at the same time explained various passages with quite concrete contents: The Scherzo contains a portrait of his friend Carl Almeroth, in the Adagio it concerns a girl whom he 'deeply gazed into the eyes', and through the Finale ghosts the 'German Michel'. For Semyon Bychkov, religious doubt remains at the end: 'No one will ever be able to convince me that doubts do not exist.'