After the acclaimed start to the series Böck is Bruckner gave important insights into the Upper Austrian chapter of Bruckner's life and his self-image, the second of a total of six readings with music is dedicated, somewhat tongue in cheek, to Bruckner's interminable and ultimately fruitless search for a wife. It presents several female candidates for the role of significant other, highlighting the „absurd number of precipitate offers of marriage“ from this eternal bachelor and the letters with which on the other hand female admirers made their advances to the composer after he had acquired fame and prestige.
There will be music to accompany and comment on the texts, which bring to life a chapter in the social history of the 19th century and cast light on gender roles of the period. The pieces range from dedication works of Bruckner to love songs and excerpts from the so-called Kitzler-Studienbuch, which contains works and sketches showing the composer on his way to establishing an individual style. In addition there is the premiere of a work commissioned by the Brucknerhaus, a setting of selected (suitors) letters by Johannes Harneit for voice and the „Bruckner instruments“, organ, piano and violin.
Johannes Harneit (* 1963)
Bruckner Letters (2019) [First performance]
Anton Bruckner (1824–1896)
Abendklänge in E minor, WAB 110 (1866)
Erinnerung in Ab major, WAB 117 (um 1868)
Im April in Ab major, WAB 75 (1868)
Songs from a Notebook for Luise Bogner (1850–51)
Piano pieces and songs from the Kitzler-Studienbuch (1861–63)
inter alia
Wolfgang Böck | Speaker
Elisabeth Wimmer | Soprano
Alexander Knaak | Violin
Daniel Linton-France | Piano
Martin Riccabona | Organ