Bruckner's symphonies in their original sound
Appropriating
In the autumn of 1872, Anton Bruckner began work on his Symphony No. 3 in D minor, which, after its completion the following year, he offered for dedication, together with the Symphony No. 2 in C minor, to the idolised Richard Wagner during a visit to Bayreuth, who chose the 'Third', which was then also "dedicated to him in deepest reverence". However, the only "Wagner symphony" is the "1873 version", which still contains all the allusions to, reminiscences of and quotations from the works of its dedicatee, who was thus able to recognise himself in the symphonic reflection of his oeuvre that Bruckner supposedly reproached him with, but failed to realise that it was rather a deliberate appropriation of specific elements of his musical language by his admirer.
Bruckner's musical obeisance to the "dearly beloved immortal master" is combined with two of Wagner's compositions: the Faust Overture in D minor, from which Bruckner took a motif that he used in the final movement of his String Quintet in F major, composed in 1878/79, and the settings of five of Mathilde Wesendonck's poems, which became known as the "Wesendonck-Lieder", two of which, Im Treibhaus and Träume, Wagner explicitly described as a "study for 'Tristan und Isolde'", an opera for whose premiere Bruckner travelled to Munich in 1865.
With the renowned soprano Christiane Karg, the internationally acclaimed original sound orchestra Anima Eterna Brugge and the star conductor Pablo Heras-Casado, an illustrious group of debutants listens to the interplay of An- and Zueignung and makes sound what connected admirers and admired ones, but also what separated them.
Richard Wagner (1813–1883)
A Faust Overture in D minor, WWV 59 (1839-40, rev. 1843-44 & 1855)
Five poems for female voice and orchestra ("Wesendonck-Lieder"), WWV 91 (1857-58, 1893).
[Orchestration by Felix Mottl (1856-1911)]
– Intermission –
Anton Bruckner (1824–1896)
Symphony No. 3 in D minor, WAB 103 (1872-73) "Version 1873"
Christiane Karg | Mezzo-soprano
Anima Eterna Brugge
Pablo Heras-Casado | conductor
