Bruckner Symphony No 8 Celibidache Münchner Philharmoniker Live Tokyo 20...

This live concert was recorded by NHK Japan, it was prepared and organized by Mr. Amano. As you can see on the film: there are no visible microphones, no extra lighting, no visible cameras. Nobody of the filming and recording team was allowed to be seen or be walking around during the performance; the NHK team had no chance of "rehearsing" the filming, there was no "run-through" before; the team was only allowed to attend the regular rehearsal the day before. For many reasons this performance of Bruckner 8th was one of the most memorable performance of this symphony under Celibidache and the Munich Philharmonic. The day after that performance, at the next rehearsal, he greeted the orchestra with the words: "Thank you very much for a beautiful concert yesterday! We played better than we are". This seemingly silly or funny comment had a deep meaning: the concert was not an addition of 100 good players playing together correctly. We reached a much higher level by creating a unity and harmony, all only serving the beauty of the composition and not showing off an addition of individual brilliance. (More in my book "Memories of 17 years under Maestro Celibidache as principal bassoonist of the Munich Philharmonic", only English manuscript available from edelmann@edelmann-rust.com) About the timpanist Peter Sadlo: he was one of the best timpanist I ever knew; he was always perfectly in tune, he could make the instrument sound like a pizzicato of a double bass, his rhythm was phenomenal (look at Celibidache's rehearsal of Beethoven 9th); the sound was always round and beautiful even in fortissimo; and most of all, he could match beautifully to the rest of the orchestra in creating a unity of sound with everybody. Sadlo was a great virtuoso soloist, so sometimes he had the tendencies to be too loud in relation to the rest of the orchestra, which caused a lot of conflicts with Celibidache. But in the end Celibidache convinced Peter Sadlo about the efforts to BLEND with the complete orchestra and the phenomenal results you can hear in this Bruckner Symphony.

Comment by Friedrich Edelmann