Bruckner Orchestra Linz releases special LP recording
The 2 LP set comes in a study box and a canvas bag. The price is 50 Euros ($56.00) plus 20 Euros ($26.00) postage to the USA. Orders and more information is available from the Brucknerhaus shop. Their e-mail is kassa@landestheater-linz.at ANTON BRUCKNER SYMPHONY NO. 8 IN C MINOR, WAB 108 (VERSION 1890 - NOWAK) BRUCKNER ORCHESTRA LINZ MARKUS POSCHNER Recording: February 2018, Orchestersaal Musiktheater am Volksgarten Musical Direction: Erich Pintar, Studio Weinberg Artistic design: Marietta Tsoukalas, BOL Movements: Allegro moderato - 15'02" Scherzo. Allegro moderato - 13'50" Adagio. Feierlich langsam; doch nicht schleppend - 24'25" Finale. Feierlich, nicht schnell - 22'25" Herewith, the Eighth! We know the paths he took to get from Ansfelden to Sankt Florian and from there to Linz. We travel them to this day, even if their nature has changed. Not to mention the time it took at the time to traverse them. Or maybe we should mention it? In the middle of Linz stands the Old Cathedral, unimpressed by temporal matters. Only on the surface, however, for the spires Bruckner knew were only recently renovated. The copper still sparkles. In the Cathedral’s organ loft, his organ still perches, as if it were waiting for him. Before moving to Vienna, he knelt before its console, which was his for more than a decade and will remain his in eternity, carefully pulled a pencil from the pocket of his jacket and wrote “Lebe wohl” – farewell – on the front panel. An inscription valid to this day, for those looking at the altar as Bruckner did while playing. To the attentive, his improvisations have soaked into the walls. Attentiveness promises perception. “Genius loci” is quickly said, and the phrase subconsciously refers to the “spirit of the place”. It is a fact that Anton Bruckner was born in Ansfelden on September 4, 1824. He is an Upper Austrian, as we are. A fact that has no meaning unless we interpret this affiliation correctly. The German word “Zugehörigkeit” (affiliation) contains the verb “hören” (hearing, listening) and thus also “gehören” – belonging. “He who wants to build tall towers must spend a long time on the foundations,” thus a saying ascribed to Anton Bruckner. As apposite as the phrase is for his oeuvre, it is entirely uncertain whether he ever really uttered it. Anton Bruckner happened in our area. Nowhere else could this have taken place, between chants of kyrie and landler steps, between the hills and forests of Upper Austria. Where a dialect is spoken which is unmistakable to this day, and which influences the sound of people here. Past the age of forty, Bruckner finally broke away, only to break away over and over for the rest of his life, including from the church’s sanctuary. He found himself and his language in the formal landscape of the symphony. Symphonies of excessive formal and tonal dimensions, symphonies that crash to earth like monoliths. His music does not belong to us, it belongs to the entire world, but it is part of us, of our identity. The Bruckner Orchestra Linz is part of this country, audible far beyond its borders. It bears more than its name, which is more than a responsibility. The orchestra is at home where Bruckner left for the world. Markus Poschner and the Bruckner Orchestra Linz are eternally tracing the content of the printed score, over and over. This requires understanding on which grounds – and that is not mainly a geographic designation – from which foundation his music arose, which traditions, from Palestrina to Schubert, Beethoven and Berlioz, it embraces. At the same time, Bruckner blasts away the cathedral and speaks to God directly. This pious man was a heretic, as all mystics are. They seek direct contact. The fog of incense lifts. But without dragging (doch nicht schleppend)! Bruckner sings and dances in Linz, in Upper Austria. The avant-garde is our tradition. Herewith the Eighth! Norbert Trawöger Artistic Director Bruckner Orchester Linz | ||||||
