Günter Wand's performances of Bruckner have long since achieved legendary status. As one of the last survivors of the great tradition of German conductors, Wand and his Hamburg-based NDR Symphony Orchestra have an unsurpassable authority in this most challenging of repertoires.

Making his now customary visit to Edinburgh, Wand closed the international festival with Bruckner's Eighth Symphony.

Wand's approach to the composer has become familiar through his recordings and single-minded focus on Bruckner's symphonies in recent years. Yet nothing can prepare one for the experience of hearing Wand and the NDR orchestra live.

The sheer sound of the ensemble has an elemental power. Grounded in a double-bass section of awesome weight and presence, the orchestra rose in a seamless continuum to the heights of blazing trumpets and perfectly balanced woodwinds.

The completeness of this sonority matched the spiritual range of Wand's interpretation.

The first movement loomed from a chromatic abyss, with only the flowing second subject providing respite. The final climax in this movement was a deathly call to arms, as a trumpet intoned a brutal, dotted rhythm over ominous drumstrokes.

The scherzo introduced a human element to the work's drama, as Wand's supple phrasing caught a vestige of rustic charm.

But this was the apocalyptic merry-making of superhuman forces rather than a homely celebration. Even the trio, ostensibly a pastoral meditation, became a rapt hymn in Wand's vision.

The emotional heart of Wand's performance was the adagio, which transfigured the whole work. Wand was both contemplative and terrifyingly expressive. The movement unfolded as a series of ever-greater circles, as Wand allowed Bruckner's unique structure to flow with unforced grandeur.

If the eventual highpoint of the adagio was unbearable in its intensity, the coda of the finale, and the climax of the entire piece, was utterly devastating.

Bruckner combines themes from all four movements in this closing peroration, a metaphor for the transformation of the work's spiritual landscape. Wand's performance led inexorably to these shattering final minutes. It was as if the totality of the symphony's drama was contained in this single passage, and listening to the conclusion was both humbling and awe-inspiring.

This was as powerful a performance of a Bruckner symphony as it's possible to hear: an overwhelming, cataclysmic revelation.