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Rating: 
Summary: Good work - but, oh, the price!?!
Review: I've just borrowed this book from a university library. Professor Korstvedt has written a fine treatise on the Bruckner Eighth and is apparently planning a full-length biography on the composer and this is certainly something to look forward to, especially as it will, I think, be the first such work by an American author. This book undertakes a detailed analysis of the masterwork - its form and genesis and all of the relevant background material. But for a very thin hardcover volume with just over a hundred pages of text? You've got to be kidding me! Borrow this book from your library unless money is no object.
Rating: 
Summary: great book,a must read
Review: If you care at all about this symphony or this era, do not miss this book - one of the best Cambridge handbooks (a superb series). Korstvedt not only clarifies the murky question of revisions, and helps us understand the creative process in this work and the structure and meaning - he also explodes what has become the conventional wisdom about editions. He makes a powerful case for the supposedly "corrupt" edition published in the composer's lifetime, showing how it profoundly changes our understanding of the meaning of the work, and discussing great early recordings based on this edition (and comparing them to some distinguished modern recordings). The chapter on performance traditions by itself is worth the price (only $10 used - what a deal!) A must-read, which I hope will be read not only by listeners but by Bruckner performers.
Rating: 
Summary: An uninspired thesis retread
Review: So far as we know, his 8th symphony is as famous as his 9th and/or 4th. There is also a famous annecdote that all the students of Composer's were really impressed when he first played this symphony by piano. Composer explained that this symphony reflects the life of his living in the country. But, this book (though it seems that the author had been tried his great effort to complete this) just shows the analysis of his 8th. However, thank to author that the most difficult area of discovering Bruckner's symphony at the most detailed situation. All the lovers of 8th symphony are recommended to purchase this item.
Rating:
Summary: An uninspired thesis retread
Review: The substantive content of this slender volume is in absolute contrast to the greatness of this monumental symphony, arguably the most imposing symphony of the second half of the 19th century. The small book still manages to be stuffed with filling, but of the wrong kind: intricate and tedious academic harmonic analyses and self-proclaimed 'controversial' findings with regard to the various editions of the symphony. Thus, despite its short length, the book overstays its welcome by failing to balance its technical minutiae with any larger musical issues such as where the symphony could proceed after Wagner or the sublime solution of Bruckner. All-in-all, it resembles an unfocussed and undigested doctoral thesis (which doubtless was its unfortunate genesis). IMHO, one of the weaker titles in the otherwise fine Cambridge Press series, and a disappointment for those hoping for a long-overdue addition to the sadly empty bookshelf on this extraordinary composer.
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