Orchestre Métropolitain, Yannick Nézet-Séguin - Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 (2009)

Following his successful 2006 recording of Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 with the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, Yannick Nézet-Séguin turns in a stunning account of the Symphony No. 8 in C minor that will secure his reputation as a true Brucknerian and win new admirers of his conducting. This 2009 rendition is certainly one of the most awe-inspiring ever made of this apocalyptic symphony, and the clarity and wide dynamic range of ATMA's live recording provides astonishing details and inner voices that are often lost elsewhere, because Nézet-Séguin clearly has striven to make every note audible. This effort is aided by the extraordinarily responsive acoustics of Montréal's Église du Très Saint-Nom-de-Jésus, which give the music vast spaciousness and depth and make the orchestral colors sound utterly luminous. But the most impressive aspect of the recording is the interpretation, which is as immense, far-reaching, and stupendous as the composer ever could have wished. Nézet-Séguin really gets inside the emotional world of Bruckner's music and finds the right tone, pacing, and pulse to make the symphony feel organic, continuous, and endlessly expansive. Thanks to Nézet-Séguin's commitment to let the symphony unfold on its own terms and exist in its own universe, everything makes sense in its own place, and there is none of the episodic choppiness that comes from excessively driven or heroically forced performances. The Symphony No. 8 is divided between two discs, with the Finale carried over to disc 2, and the elegiac Adagio from Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 is provided as filler, though this gripping performance is much more than padding; it is on the same level of intensity as the featured work and worth hearing in its own right. This album is highly recommended as one of the finest of 2009.