From Bong Joon-ho to Van Gogh: Observer critics’ culture highlights for 2024
From Withnail and I on stage to Olivia Rodrigo on tour, Sally Wainwright’s new drama to Blondie, Bruckner and Jez Butterworth, our experts guide you through the treats in store this year
December 2023
Bruckner: Symphony No 3 album review – mountaintop moments of human intimacy
Conductor François-Xavier Roth’s period-instrument sensibility is all over this beautifully recorded live performance of a much tinkered-with work
August 2023
Bruckner: Nine Symphonies review – Concertgebouw’s early gift is a conducting masterclass
In advance of Bruckner’s bicentenary, a roll call of tremendous historic interpretations is a timely reminder of this orchestra’s superb playing
February 2022
Bruckner: Symphonies Nos 1 and 5, etc review – Nelsons’ buoyant reading lets the lyricism flow
The conductor’s latest journey through Bruckner (and Wagner) is typically extrovert, allowing the music to flow naturally
November 2020
Know the score
From Vivaldi to Vaughan Williams: more musical voices who have changed our world
Over the past few months, our Know the Score series introduced 20 great composers. But what of the many we couldn’t write about? Martin Kettle suggests some other names whose music is well worth exploring
October 2020
Bruckner: Symphonies Nos 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9 review – glorious performances make a worthy tribute
The late conductor excelled in late Romantic repertoire, and these live recording of Bruckner symphonies see him at his best
September 2019
Prom 60: Vienna Phil/Ax/Haitink review – a beautiful, masterful farewell
Bernard Haitink chose Beethoven and Bruckner for his final UK concert. His flowing and authoritative interpretation of the latter’s 7th symphony foregrounded the music’s beauty but not at the expense of structure
May 2018
Berlin Philharmonic/Rattle review – all guns blazing on Simon's farewell tour
The fruits of Simon Rattle’s long partnership with the Berlin orchestra were evident in a magisterial Bruckner Ninth and vivid miniatures by Hans Abrahamsen
July 2017
Bruckner: Symphony No 3 CD review – consistently superb, with buoyant strings
Aided by eloquent playing, Andris Nelsons was alive to the composer’s uncertainty in a lithe and at times mesmerising performance
July 2014
Bruckner: Symphony No 9 review – Claudio Abbado's great last testament
Compiled from Abbado's final concerts at the Lucerne festival last year, this recording captures the transparent beauty of the occasion, writes Andrew Clements
Bruckner: Symphony No 7 review – Iván Fischer and co pick up the pace
Fischer and his Budapest Festival Orchestra make Bruckner fly, writes Fiona Maddocks
LSO/Harding review – unpredictable, intriguing and often moving
Penderecki fell flat but Bruckner soared through the cathedral, as Daniel Harding grappled with St Paul's acoustics, writes Guy Dammann
June 2014
The hot tickets
Marina Abramović, Bernard Haitink and Twelve Angry Men …
Leave your baggage behind with performance artist Marina Abramović, find Hansel and Gretel in Lancaster, enjoy Bruckner with Haitink and grab a final chance to see Twelve Angry Men at the Garrick
April 2014
Sex, death and dissonance: the strange, obsessive world of Anton Bruckner
There's no doubt Anton Bruckner was an oddball, a man with an unhealthy interest in dead bodies and teenage girls. But, writes Tom Service, the composer's obsessions and terrors also gave us some astonishing music
February 2014
Bruckner: Symphony No 9 – review
With Bernard Haitink at the helm, the LSO bring clarity and light to Bruckner's unfinished symphony, writes Fiona Maddocks
May 2013
Mozart; Bruckner: Symphony No 41, 'Jupiter'; Symphony No 7 – review
An electrifying evening in London is perfectly preserved in this 1962 recording of Herbert von Karajan and the Vienna Philharmonic, writes Stephen Pritchard
December 2012
Bruckner: Symphonies Nos 4 to 9 – review
Conductor Otto Klemperer's versions of six Bruckner's symphonies are fluent and purposeful, with a faultless sense of symphonic architecture, writes Andrew Clements
August 2012
Prom 27: BBCSSO/Runnicles – review
It's not often you hear cries of "encore" after a Bruckner symphony but in Runnicles' hands the Eighth flowed superbly, writes Guy Dammann
