Originalklangzyklus

“Anton Bruckner's extensive oeuvre is undoubtedly one of the most impressive projects of aesthetic meaning creation that the late 19th century produced. However, Bruckner narrowed his actually broad oeuvre with strange exclusiveness to two genres: large-scale sacred music and symphonic music, which aimed at monumentality, within which the composer struggled with astonishing tenacity to optimize individual work forms and versions, thus giving posterity one of their great aesthetic works left behind such philological problems.” Bruckner's contributions to the latter genre are now undisputedly among the pinnacle works of the “long century of the symphony”. It is all the more surprising and inexplicable that the question of its original sound form has largely taken a back seat to the questions of version that almost exclusively determine the discussion, although it is obvious that every composition is essentially determined by the instruments available for its performance becomes.

In contrast, we have become accustomed to hearing Bruckner's symphonies performed on modern instruments, but the sound of which does not correspond to the intentions of their creator. Bruckner wrote for string instruments with gut strings, which both sound softer and are more capable of mixing, and from 1868 he wrote specifically for Viennese woodwind and brass instruments, whose color effect is not only more intense, but whose use also causes fewer balance problems compared to the string instrument. The result is a colorful and differentiated and, thanks to the Viennese seating arrangement, a very spatial overall sound that orchestras can no longer achieve in this form with modern instruments and which gives Bruckner's music a completely different character, namely that of the composer when he was working on his symphonies.

For the first time in the world, all of Bruckner's eleven symphonies will be performed in their original sound as part of the International Bruckner Festival Linz 2024, a journey of discovery in eleven concerts that can only be heard as a cycle in the Brucknerhaus Linz and there exclusively in Austria. The symphonies always sound in their first version and therefore in the form that Bruckner originally intended to give the respective work, unimpressed by the reactions of those around him. They are preceded in the concert by compositions that owe their creation to a similar impulse or were of exemplary importance for Bruckner; they are played by eleven of Europe's most renowned original sound orchestras under the direction of eleven well-known conductors, who provide information about their view on the following pages Bruckner and what expectations they have with regard to this special project.

The specially designed, programmed and prominently cast concert cycle guarantees a unique listening experience, a truly original sound festival that only the Bruckner city of Linz can offer in the Bruckner year 2024.