![]() As religious as he was, his faith is music. That’s why I think it’s important not to perform his symphonies in a narrowly Catholic sense, with acoustic incense. And he found this world through music, not through religion. What kind of world is it that Bruckner reveals to us? “Mahler documents his crises in his symphonies, Bruckner overcomes them” The chorale melodies that exist here were invented by Bruckner. This is secular symphonic music for the concert hall, which is also evident from the fact that he never quotes Gregorian chant or the Catholic liturgy. However, the symphonies are not strictly speaking religious or Catholic. He leads listeners into a world they would otherwise never enter. He wanted to conquer the concert hall, he wanted to go out into the world.īut doesn't his religion, the church background, resonate in the symphonies?īruckner’s symphonies represent the longing for the eternal. He was looking for a larger audience than the church could offer him. ![]() The church was of great importance to him, but he didn’t want to dedicate his life to its music. Where did that come from?īruckner came from church music. In fact, that seems to have been his ambition: to achieve great things as a symphonist. “Bruckner’s symphonies are not religious, but universal” ![]() I regard him as the greatest symphonic composer since Beethoven. And as a composer, he is completely unique. But he was a Paganini of the organ, who could fill the Royal Albert Hall in London six times in a row with his improvisations. He was perhaps, to use Mahler’s words, lost to the world: a little insecure, and not particularly attractive either, which is why he had no luck with women. He was certainly a genius, but not a fool. That is of course very polemical, but is there also a grain of truth in it? Hans von Bülow, the first chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker, said of Anton Bruckner: “Half genius, half fool”. ![]() COMPOSER BRUCKNER HOW TOWe learn how to find Bruckner’s soul in the symphonies and why acoustic incense should be used sparingly in their performance. He outlines Bruckner’s spiritual and tonal world, which was inspired to a large extent by the view of the Austrian Alps. In our interview, he provides an insight into his lifelong preoccupation with the composer. On the other hand, Bruckner was greatly admired by subsequent composers including his friend Gustav Mahler, who described him as "half simpleton, half God".Home Stories Blomstedt Interview Bruckner Beware of acoustic incense Herbert Blomstedt in conversation about Anton Brucknerįor Herbert Blomstedt, Anton Bruckner is “the greatest symphonist since Beethoven”. His works, the symphonies in particular, had detractors, most notably the influential Austrian critic Eduard Hanslick, and other supporters of Johannes Brahms who pointed to their large size and use of repetition, as well as to Bruckner's propensity for revising many of his works, often with the assistance of colleagues, and his apparent indecision about which versions he preferred. This apparent dichotomy between Bruckner the man and Bruckner the composer hampers efforts to describe his life in a way that gives a straightforward context for his music. Unlike other musical radicals such as Richard Wagner and Hugo Wolf who fit the enfant terrible mould, Bruckner showed extreme humility before other musicians, Wagner in particular. Bruckner's compositions helped to define contemporary musical radicalism, owing to their dissonances, unprepared modulations, and roving harmonies. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, strongly polyphonic character, and considerable length. Josef Anton Bruckner (4 September 1824 – 11 October 1896) was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. ![]()
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