10.06.2023

Bruckner's symphonies in their original sound

Anton Bruckner's symphonies are undisputedly among the pinnacle works of the 19th century. However, we have become accustomed to hearing them performed on modern instruments whose sound does not correspond to the intentions of their creator. Bruckner wrote for string instruments with gut strings, which are both softer sounding and more blendable, and from 1868 onwards decidedly for Viennese woodwind and brass instruments, whose colours were different to those we know from the instruments commonly used today. The result is a completely different overall sound that allows Bruckner's music to appear in a new light. For the first time in the world, all eleven of Bruckner's symphonies will now be performed in their original sound as part of the International Bruckner Festival Linz 2024, a journey of discovery in eleven concerts that can only be heard as a cycle at the Brucknerhaus Linz and exclusively in Austria. The symphonies will always be performed in their first version and thus in the form that Bruckner originally intended for each work, still unimpressed by the reactions of his contemporaries. They are combined with compositions that owe their genesis to a similar impulse or were of exemplary importance to Bruckner, played by eleven of the most renowned original sound orchestras in Europe under the direction of renowned conductors. A unique listening experience that only the Bruckner city of Linz has to offer in the Bruckner Year 2024.

About the cycle

 

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