During his visit to the USA between 1892 and 1895 as director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York, Antonín Dvořák composed his 9th Symphony. This is not only the crowning achievement of his symphonic output, but also breaks new artistic ground with its sound-world, influenced as it is by many impressions „from the New World“.
For Bruckner as well, one of the most powerful driving forces behind his compositions was the search for a highly personal musical idiom involving an escape from well-trodden paths. This enabled him to move beyond the shadow of many famous predecessors, above all that of Beethoven.
The first, so-called „Linz“ version of his 1st Symphony was first performed in 1868 and praised for its „originality and boldness“ by the conductor Hans von Bülow, who generally spoke disparagingly of Bruckner and later called him „half genius and half jackass“. Bruckner himself called the Symphony his „impudent young lass“, and it proved to be a ground-breaking initial impulse for the 40-year-old composer, with which he confidently mapped out the landscape of his own personal symphonic style.
In this sense we could describe the 1st Symphony as Bruckner's own work „from the New World“, a world he had chosen to be his own homeland – the symphony.Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904)
Symphony No. 9 (From the New World) in E minor, op. 95 (1893)
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Anton Bruckner (1824–1896)
Symphony No. 1 in C minor, WAB 101 (1865–66, rev. 1877) „Linz Version“
Bruckner Orchester Linz
Markus Poschner | Conductor
A joint historical investigation will be undertaken by Ars Electronica, the Brucknerhaus Linz and the Bruckner Orchester Linz under Markus Poschner. After the visualised Klangwolke the day before, the Sunday evening brings a homage to the early days of this remarkable project. The starting point of this acoustical journey will once again be an orchestral concert in the Brucknerhaus, which will be relayed to the banks of the Danube via a powerful sound system to create new acoustical, analogue and digital sound spaces.
