Programme Guide

In his Ninth Symphony, which Anton Bruckner left unfinished literally on his deathbed, he composed music in the style of a monumental sinfonia da chiesa that revolves around the final things in life. The monumental work, which is dedicated to the “beloved God”, contains one of the most beautiful Bruckner adagios of all – sounds with which the composer recorded his “farewell to life”. Bruckner himself used these words to describe a gently descending chorale part intoned by horns and tubas. This movement, the last Bruckner completed, clearly echoes the Dresden amen familiar from Felix Mendelssohn’s Reformation Symphony and the Grail theme in Richard Wagner’s Parsifal. This phrase from the Saxon liturgy is followed by Bruckner’s music of transfiguration: visionary, luminous sounds that bear witness to the silencing of a great composer.

Before this farewell work, Bruckner specialist Herbert Blomstedt has programmed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s highly expressive D minor Piano Concerto, which demands a particularly precise and clear interpretation. Even the beginning of the work – the similarities to the later overture to Don Giovanni are unmistakable – could introduce an opera scene with its nuanced tonal colours. Leif Ove Andsnes, who is known for his sophisticated and vividly coloured Mozart performances, is ideally placed to shed light on this dramatic darkness.