Program booklet for the event
Bruckner's symphonies in their original sound
Beginning
The comparison of the first works of two 'late symphonists' - Anton Bruckner and Johannes Brahms were both 43 years old at the time of the premiere of their 'first' - makes it clear that the symphonies of the supposed antipodes have a common root: Ludwig van Beethoven, whose Coriolan Overture in C minor is followed attacca by the symphonies in the concerto, which are not coincidentally in the same key.
Although Brahms was still complaining at the beginning of the 1870s that he would probably "never compose a symphony" because he "always heard such a giant (Beethoven) marching behind him", he kept working on a "1st symphony movement" drafted in 1862, on the basis of which he finally completed his Symphony No. 1 in C minor in 1876, a full 14 years later. The influence of the "giant" on the work was so obvious that the conductor Hans von Bülow's bon mot soon made the rounds, saying that it was Beethoven's "tenth symphony".
In retrospect, Bruckner called his Symphony No. 1 in C minor, completed in 1866 and premiered in Linz in 1868, "Das kecke Beserl". And indeed, what an impetuous work, what a revolutionary throw! By 1865, Bruckner had learned his craft, internalised the compositional tradition and become acquainted with the music of Richard Wagner. Equipped with these tools, he set out into new worlds with his first numbered symphony and confidently entered the musical field that was avowedly the most important to him: that of the symphony.
Under the direction of Christoph Spering, Das Neue Orchester presents two symphonic attempts that were to prove milestones in the development of the genre and thus worthy of the great example of their creators.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Overture in C minor to Heinrich Joseph von Collins Trauerspiel Coriolan, op. 62 (1807)
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)
Symphony No. 1 in C minor, op. 68 (1862-76, rev. 1877)
– Intermission –
Ludwig van Beethoven
Overture in C minor to Heinrich Joseph von Collin's tragedy Coriolan, op. 62 (1807)
Anton Bruckner (1824–1896)
Symphony No. 1 in C minor, WAB 101 (1865-66) "Linz Version"
Das Neue Orchester
Christoph Spering | Conductor