Concerts with works by

Anton Bruckner

Mandelring Quartett / Roland Glassl

Mandelring Quartet

Kochanovsky conducts Bruckner's Symphony in d

The Concertgebouw’s famous Main Hall is one of the best concert halls in the world, well-known for its exceptional acoustics and special atmosphere. In the Main Hall, you will feel history. Here, Gustav Mahler conducted his own compositions, as did Richard Strauss and Igor Stravinsky. Sergei Rachmaninoff played his own piano concertos in the Main Hall. This is also where musicians such as Leonard Bernstein, Vladimir Horowitz and Yehudi Menuhin gave legendary performances. Right up to now, the Main Hall offers a stage to the world’s best orchestras and musicians. Buy your tickets now and experience the magic of the Main Hall for yourself!

Bach Bruckner

Mendelssohn Bartholdy Bruckner

Riccardo Chailly conducts the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Bruckner's Ninth

Riccardo Chailly, conductor emeritus and former chief conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, rounds off the symphonic cycle marking Anton Bruckner’s 200th birthday with his enigmatic swansong, the Ninth Symphony – including the finale, which the latest scholarship has deemed complete.Anton Bruckner’s symphonies are a pillar of the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s core repertoire. And they’re certainly in good hands with such an authority as Riccardo Chailly. He sees Bruckner as ‘a saint who constantly confronted the devil, a man of such piety that he dared to explore the darkness’. In the Ninth, darkness wins: Bruckner died before completing the work. The slow third movement is a dignified ‘farewell to life’, as Bruckner himself noted in the score. ‘It has to be the most beautiful thing I have ever written,’ he said of this moving Adagio. ‘It always grips me when I play it.’Many fragments of the missing finale were found among Bruckner’s personal effects. And for more than a century, these made up a fascinating puzzle, yet no one could piece them together to form a convincing whole. But a team of musicologists changed all that in 2012. The performance version by Samale, Phillips, Cohrs and Mazzuca is astounding, and changes the symphony’s tragic character: after three dark movements, the last brings redemption. Performed here is the ‘SPCM’ version heard in J.A. Phillips’s most recent revision dating from 2021–22.

Mendelssohn Bartholdy Bruckner

Riccardo Chailly conducts Bruckner's Symphony No. 9

Riccardo Chailly, conductor emeritus and former chief conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, rounds off the symphonic cycle marking Anton Bruckner’s 200th birthday with his enigmatic swansong, the Ninth Symphony – including the finale, which the latest scholarship has deemed complete.Anton Bruckner’s symphonies are a pillar of the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s core repertoire. And they’re certainly in good hands with such an authority as Riccardo Chailly. He sees Bruckner as ‘a saint who constantly confronted the devil, a man of such piety that he dared to explore the darkness’. In the Ninth, darkness wins: Bruckner died before completing the work. The slow third movement is a dignified ‘farewell to life’, as Bruckner himself noted in the score. ‘It has to be the most beautiful thing I have ever written,’ he said of this moving Adagio. ‘It always grips me when I play it.’Many fragments of the missing finale were found among Bruckner’s personal effects. And for more than a century, these made up a fascinating puzzle, yet no one could piece them together to form a convincing whole. But a team of musicologists changed all that in 2012. The performance version by Samale, Phillips, Cohrs and Mazzuca is astounding and changes the symphony’s tragic character: after three dark movements, the last brings redemption. Performed here is the ‘SPCM’ version heard in J.A. Phillips’s most recent revision dating from 2021–22.

Mendelssohn Bartholdy Bruckner

Riccardo Chailly conducts Bruckner's Symphony No. 9

Riccardo Chailly, conductor emeritus and former chief conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, rounds off the symphonic cycle marking Anton Bruckner’s 200th birthday with his enigmatic swansong, the Ninth Symphony – including the finale, which the latest scholarship has deemed complete.Anton Bruckner’s symphonies are a pillar of the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s core repertoire. And they’re certainly in good hands with such an authority as Riccardo Chailly. He sees Bruckner as ‘a saint who constantly confronted the devil, a man of such piety that he dared to explore the darkness’. In the Ninth, darkness wins: Bruckner died before completing the work. The slow third movement is a dignified ‘farewell to life’, as Bruckner himself noted in the score. ‘It has to be the most beautiful thing I have ever written,’ he said of this moving Adagio. ‘It always grips me when I play it.’Many fragments of the missing finale were found among Bruckner’s personal effects. And for more than a century, these made up a fascinating puzzle, yet no one could piece them together to form a convincing whole. But a team of musicologists changed all that in 2012. The performance version by Samale, Phillips, Cohrs and Mazzuca is astounding and changes the symphony’s tragic character: after three dark movements, the last brings redemption. Performed here is the ‘SPCM’ version heard in J.A. Phillips’s most recent revision dating from 2021–22.

Concert in Graz

Concert of the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna

Concert of the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna

Christoph Eschenbach, Christian Schmitt

Happy 85th birthday on 20 February 2025! We wish this to our Honorary Conductor, for whom one thing is for sure: »Music gives you youth, freshness and lots of new beginnings.« Christoph Eschenbach always leaves an impression with his unmistakable aura: he is not a podium matador by any means, but rather comes across at times like a Buddhist monk with his convincing gestures and penetrating eyes full of warm-heartedness. A conductor who prefers silence rather than many words – and one who sees himself as a »musician among musicians«. This results in captivating interpretations with a great sense of mutual understanding, including such works close to his heart as in this year’s programme: Christoph Eschenbach once said that Bruckner was one of his »greatest treasures«. He discovered his love for Bruckner’s music while listening to a radio programme as a boy. And it still fascinates him to this day, so he explores the fascination of Bruckner’s first work with us – this »cheeky little fellow«. It is truly a great blessing that we have been able to come together with such a charismatic artistic personality for such a long time. It is like a longstanding and very close love affair that is constantly being revitalised – also with Saint-Saëns’ »Organ Symphony«: this powerful piece was recorded with Christoph Eschenbach and our orchestra at the Bamberg Cathedral back in 1987 for an audio release. We have every reason to be excited about how the work will sound together with our house organist Christian Schmitt on the concert organ our audience loves so much – after all, our Honorary Conductor remains curious in his old age: »I want to still be conducting when I’m 100, because I might be able to discover even more at the age of 99 than I can at the moment.«

Christoph Eschenbach, Christian Schmitt

Happy 85th birthday on 20 February 2025! We wish this to our Honorary Conductor, for whom one thing is for sure: »Music gives you youth, freshness and lots of new beginnings.« Christoph Eschenbach always leaves an impression with his unmistakable aura: he is not a podium matador by any means, but rather comes across at times like a Buddhist monk with his convincing gestures and penetrating eyes full of warm-heartedness. A conductor who prefers silence rather than many words – and one who sees himself as a »musician among musicians«. This results in captivating interpretations with a great sense of mutual understanding, including such works close to his heart as in this year’s programme: Christoph Eschenbach once said that Bruckner was one of his »greatest treasures«. He discovered his love for Bruckner’s music while listening to a radio programme as a boy. And it still fascinates him to this day, so he explores the fascination of Bruckner’s first work with us – this »cheeky little fellow«. It is truly a great blessing that we have been able to come together with such a charismatic artistic personality for such a long time. It is like a longstanding and very close love affair that is constantly being revitalised – also with Saint-Saëns’ »Organ Symphony«: this powerful piece was recorded with Christoph Eschenbach and our orchestra at the Bamberg Cathedral back in 1987 for an audio release. We have every reason to be excited about how the work will sound together with our house organist Christian Schmitt on the concert organ our audience loves so much – after all, our Honorary Conductor remains curious in his old age: »I want to still be conducting when I’m 100, because I might be able to discover even more at the age of 99 than I can at the moment.«

Marek Janowski

“All good music must have a sense of direction,” Marek Janowski once said. This is what he considers “the most important guiding principle for all composers.” The composer who posed the greatest challenge throughout Janowski’s life was Beethoven. The maestro initially navigates a classical terrain in Beethoven’s First Symphony, while Bruckner’s Third Symphony contains harmonic disturbances and jarring rhythms, as well as quotes from Wagner. In the opening, marked “Misterioso,” the distinctive trumpet theme emerges from the gently undulating strings. The work’s originality certainly comes to the fore in the finale, when a polka (played by the strings) is boldly layered over a chorale (played by the winds). This demands restrained ecstasy from the musicians of the BRSO – and the experienced Beethoven and Bruckner interpreter Janowski provides the best guidance.

Marek Janowski

“All good music must have a sense of direction,” Marek Janowski once said. This is what he considers “the most important guiding principle for all composers.” The composer who posed the greatest challenge throughout Janowski’s life was Beethoven. The maestro initially navigates a classical terrain in Beethoven’s First Symphony, while Bruckner’s Third Symphony contains harmonic disturbances and jarring rhythms, as well as quotes from Wagner. In the opening, marked “Misterioso,” the distinctive trumpet theme emerges from the gently undulating strings. The work’s originality certainly comes to the fore in the finale, when a polka (played by the strings) is boldly layered over a chorale (played by the winds). This demands restrained ecstasy from the musicians of the BRSO – and the experienced Beethoven and Bruckner interpreter Janowski provides the best guidance.

Guest performance

Concert in Milan

Concert in New York

Guest performance

NDR Vokalensemble / Simon Halsey

British conductor Simon Halsey leads »SINGING!« 2025 and, together with the NDR Vokalensemble, the award-winning choral conductor wants to breathe new life into the participatory concert after the coronavirus years. Register now to take part!

Bruckner: Messe

In 1867, Anton Bruckner, recovering from a nervous ailment, began composing his large-scale Mass No. 3. Twenty-five years later, he quoted it in his unfinished 9th Symphony as a gesture of thanks to God.

Pablo Heras-Casado dirigiert Anton Bruckners f-Moll-Messe

After personal and professional setbacks drove Bruckner to the brink of madness in 1867, the organist suffered a nervous breakdown. Recovering in an asylum, he returned to composing and created his "Great" f-minor Mass, a work of symphonic scale and profound expressiveness. The SWR Vokalensemble, WDR Rundfunkchor Köln, and SWR Symphonieorchester reunite with conductor Pablo Heras-Casado this season for a performance of Bruckner's final mass setting.

Bruckner: Messe

In 1867, Anton Bruckner, recovering from a nervous ailment, began composing his large-scale Mass No. 3. Twenty-five years later, he quoted it in his unfinished 9th Symphony as a gesture of thanks to God.

Pablo Heras-Casado dirigiert Anton Bruckners f-Moll-Messe

After personal and professional setbacks drove Bruckner to the brink of madness in 1867, the organist suffered a nervous breakdown. Recovering in an asylum, he returned to composing and created his "Great" f-minor Mass, a work of symphonic scale and profound expressiveness. The SWR Vokalensemble, WDR Rundfunkchor Köln, and SWR Symphonieorchester reunite with conductor Pablo Heras-Casado this season for a performance of Bruckner's final mass setting.

Angel Blue | Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest | Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Soprano Angel Blue, known for her clear, warm, and radiant lyrical timbre, has graced opera houses from New York to Vienna and London. In Cologne, she presents Richard Strauss's melancholic and indulgent "Four Last Songs." She's accompanied by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who combines Strauss's poignant song cycle with Bruckner's yearning Third Symphony.

Pablo Heras-Casado dirigiert Anton Bruckners f-Moll-Messe

After personal and professional setbacks drove Bruckner to the brink of madness in 1867, the organist suffered a nervous breakdown. Recovering in an asylum, he returned to composing and created his "Great" f-minor Mass, a work of symphonic scale and profound expressiveness. The SWR Vokalensemble, WDR Rundfunkchor Köln, and SWR Symphonieorchester reunite with conductor Pablo Heras-Casado this season for a performance of Bruckner's final mass setting.

Pablo Heras-Casado dirigiert Anton Bruckners f-Moll-Messe

Bruckner: Messe

In 1867, Anton Bruckner, recovering from a nervous ailment, began composing his large-scale Mass No. 3. Twenty-five years later, he quoted it in his unfinished 9th Symphony as a gesture of thanks to God.