Guest at Mozartfest Würzburg

Würzburg, Dom
18:00 Uhr

»What we love about him is that long-lost joy of being underway.« The philosopher Ernst Bloch wrote this about Anton Bruckner in his book »The Spirit of Utopia« – and also raved there about the latter's »active versatility«. The expansion of formal and instrumental dimensions in Beethoven’s symphonies laid the foundation for Bruckner’s monumental works in the pinnacle of orchestral composition. He was repeatedly compared to this year’s honouree and was finally recognised as a worthy artistic heir. Bruckner then spent a full nine years crafting his last symphonic work, which we perform under the baton of Jonathan Nott. It is composed in D minor, which meant Bruckner was treading on thin ice: for that is precisely the key Beethoven used for his Ninth. As he evidently feared that he might be criticised for this, he explained his reasons for this choice at the time: »What can I do if the main theme just happened to come to me in D minor; it’s simply my favourite key.« So he decided not to change a thing and added with a wink: »But with a chorus like the one in Beethoven – well, Bruckner isn’t quite that daft.« He worked on the symphony right up until his death in 1896 and was unable to finish the final movement, though this may well have been a deliberate decision: The solemn opening is followed by a ferociously stomping scherzo, and the ending is not a hymnal vocal finale as in Beethoven – but an elegiac Adagio, characterized by Bruckner himself as a »farewell to life.«

Jonathan Nott Conductor

Anton Bruckner Symphonie Nr. 9 d-Moll