Concertgebouw Orchestra: Bruckner & Schubert

Concertgebouw Orchestra: Bruckner & Schubert

Andrew Manze strikes a passionate blow for Bruckner’s Second Symphony. ‘From the yearning, desolate opening to the self-assured, triumphant ending, the Second Symphony is a gem that has for too long been inexplicably overlooked, even by many Bruckner lovers’, the conductor says. Up to now, only five conductors have led the Concertgebouw Orchestra in this work – its last performance was conducted by Riccardo Chailly in 1992. Now Andrew Manze is taking up the gauntlet.After moving to Vienna, Bruckner set to work on his Second Symphony, a work in which we can hear him finding his own voice. In addition to the long-drawn-out opening theme, folk dances and quotations from his own oeuvre, the influence of the Viennese Classics is clearly audible – that of Beethoven in particular, but Wagner and Schubert as well. Andrew Manze pairs Bruckner’s Second with the most serious of Schubert’s first six symphonies, the Fourth.

Concertgebouw Orchestra plays Bruckner and Messiaen

Anton Bruckner was a deeply religious organist, as well as a composer whose highly personal sound was far ahead of its time. The same was true of Olivier Messiaen a century later. Simone Young forges a musical and spiritual bond between Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony and Messiaen’s exquisite symphonic meditations on the Ascension.The Sixth Symphony is shorter, lighter in tone and less monumental than Bruckner’s other symphonies. ‘Die Sechste ist die keckste’ (the Sixth is the sauciest), Bruckner himself once wrote. Perhaps most remarkable is the third movement: instead of the lively, Ländler-like folk dances that characterise his scherzos, Bruckner wrote a rather dark and eerie movement here, with a theme from his Fifth appearing in the Trio. Conductor Simone Young: ‘In his symphonies, Bruckner lived the drama and the emotions he could not find in his personal life.’

Concertgebouw Orchestra plays Bruckner and Messiaen

Anton Bruckner was a deeply religious organist, as well as a composer whose highly personal sound was far ahead of its time. The same was true of Olivier Messiaen a century later. Simone Young forges a musical and spiritual bond between Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony and Messiaen’s exquisite symphonic meditations on the Ascension.The Sixth Symphony is shorter, lighter in tone and less monumental than Bruckner’s other symphonies. ‘Die Sechste ist die keckste’ (the Sixth is the sauciest), Bruckner himself once wrote. Perhaps most remarkable is the third movement: instead of the lively, Ländler-like folk dances that characterise his scherzos, Bruckner wrote a rather dark and eerie movement here, with a theme from his Fifth appearing in the Trio. Conductor Simone Young: ‘In his symphonies, Bruckner lived the drama and the emotions he could not find in his personal life.’

Vladimir Jurowski conducts the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Mozart and Bruckner

Anton Bruckner’s First Symphony is rarely performed. And that’s a shame, since this delightful journey through the Austrian countryside of Bruckner’s youth is a comprehensive introduction to his symphonic œuvre. Conductor Vladimir Jurowski considers it ‘an amazing artistic achievement to write such a symphony ten years before the composition of Brahms’ First Symphony (…). Bruckner takes Schubert's lyrical symphonic style to its extremes and even beyond them. One can clearly sense the essence of all later symphonies by Bruckner in this one, as if contained in a nutshell.’At the premiere of Bruckner’s First Symphony in Linz, audiences were above all amazed that their city organist could write symphonies. Shortly afterwards, the ambitious Bruckner moved to Vienna, the city of his predecessors Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, whose Viennese classical influences are still palpable in his First Symphony. Vladimir Jurowski juxtaposes Bruckner’s First with Mozart’s penultimate symphony, the tempestuous No. 40 in G minor, a forerunner of Romanticism. Jurowski has been a popular guest conductor with the Concertgebouw Orchestra since 2006, one with a versatile repertoire – indeed, this is the first time he will be conducting Bruckner in Amsterdam.

Vladimir Jurowski conducts the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Mozart and Bruckner

Anton Bruckner’s First Symphony is rarely performed. And that’s a shame, since this delightful journey through the Austrian countryside of Bruckner’s youth is a comprehensive introduction to his symphonic œuvre. Conductor Vladimir Jurowski considers it ‘an amazing artistic achievement to write such a symphony ten years before the composition of Brahms’ First Symphony (…). Bruckner takes Schubert's lyrical symphonic style to its extremes and even beyond them. One can clearly sense the essence of all later symphonies by Bruckner in this one, as if contained in a nutshell.’At the premiere of Bruckner’s First Symphony in Linz, audiences were above all amazed that their city organist could write symphonies. Shortly afterwards, the ambitious Bruckner moved to Vienna, the city of his predecessors Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, whose Viennese classical influences are still palpable in his First Symphony. Vladimir Jurowski juxtaposes Bruckner’s First with Mozart’s penultimate symphony, the tempestuous No. 40 in G minor, a forerunner of Romanticism. Jurowski has been a popular guest conductor with the Concertgebouw Orchestra since 2006, one with a versatile repertoire – indeed, this is the first time he will be conducting Bruckner in Amsterdam.

Concertgebouw Orchestra Essentials: Sibelius

The Essentials series introduces you to the masterpieces you will be happy to know, performed by the world-famous Concertgebouw Orchestra and complete with a lively introduction by the incomparable Thomas Vanderveken. At Essentials we welcome a new generation of music lovers, and the concerts typically have a pleasant informal atmosphere.Grand, epic, mysterious: Jean Sibelius’ Fifth Symphony is an enigma. ‘It was as if God the Father was throwing pieces of mosaic from the edge of heaven and asking me to figure out what the pattern was,’ wrote Sibelius of composing the symphony, inspired by the vast natural landscapes of Finland. The Fifth is sombre in character, the composer having suffered from deep depression. But the sun gradually broke through, and the music culminates in a radiant and sublime ending.Sibelius’s symphonies fit Santtu-Matias Rouvali like a glove, and he has been a welcome guest with the Concertgebouw Orchestra since his first appearance in 2020. Like a passionate sculptor, the Finnish conductor moulds the orchestra in changeable shapes and colours – just what Sibelius’s epic music calls for.Essentials starts at 9 p.m. with an imaginative introduction to the programme (in Dutch).

Concertgebouw Orchestra plays Beethoven

In her first performance with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Han-Na Chang champions Beethoven’s lyrical Fourth Symphony. Bernd Richard Deutsch’s Phantasma was inspired by Beethoven and Gustav Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze on display in Vienna’s Secession Building. Phantasma made a big impression on audiences at its world premiere, performed by the Concertgebouw Orchestra in October 2022. Klimt’s idealised vision of the world, brilliant explosions of colour, symbols and even gold – Deutsch brings them all to life in the music.Richard Strauss was unrivalled in his ability to make the most fantastic scenes come to life in music. Cervantes’s novel Don Quixote served as Strauss’s inspiration for his Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character. The adventures of the knight-errant and his faithful squire, as heroic as they are hilarious, come to life as the orchestra’s principal cellist Tatiana Vassiljeva and principal violist Santa Vižine, with support from the tenor tuba and bass clarinet, join their orchestra in battle. But who are they fighting? Windmills, sheep and, of course, the knight of the bright moon. Han-Na Chang now makes her first appearance with the Concertgebouw Orchestra five years after it was originally scheduled owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

Bruckner

Bruckner

Bruckner