Academic Symposium in cooperation with the Anton Bruckner Institut Linz

For the first time this year the two-day symposium is devoted to the fascinating theme of „Bruckner in biography“. The starting-point is the first biography by Franz Brunner, published in 1895 - while Bruckner was still alive - on the occasion of the unveiling of a commemorative plaque in his birthplace  Ansfelden. It goes on to look at the standard work of August Göllerich and Max Auer, published between 1922 and 1937, which heavily influenced the entire Bruckner literature which followed it; and then at the gradual objectification of the portrayals, starting in the 1970s, going right up to the monographs of the present day. The internationally renowned lecturers will examine and illuminate the representations of Bruckner to be found in the biographies without overlooking the ideological appropriation of the composer by the Nazis. The sometimes acrimonious controversies about Bruckner's image will be discussed by examining the 1911 debate around Franz Gräflingers Anton Bruckner. Bausteine zu seiner Lebensgeschichte (Building blocks of his life story) as well as the varying approaches to the writing of biographies, not least by consideration of the situation in Japan. Not only academic works will be considered, but also powerful clichés and societal views of Bruckner which have become popular.

Among the speakers are:

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christa Brüstle, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Felix Diergarten, Mag. Sandra Föger, Dr. Andrea Harrandt, Dr. Klaus Heinrich Kohrs, Dr. Thomas Leibnitz, Dr. Elisabeth Maier, Dr. Johannes Leopold Mayer, Dr. Manfred Mittermayer, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christian Neuhuber, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Sandberger, Dr. Franz Scheder, Dr. Karin Wagner, Mag. Magdalena Wieser