After Thomas Mandel's choral piece Jägerstätter – a setting of a text by Franzobel about the farmer and conscientious objector from St. Radegund who was condemned to death and executed in the 2nd World War – the instrumental works of the official ceremony, played once more by the Upper Austrian Youth Symphony Orchestra under Gábor Káli, winner of the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award 2018, show the symphony as a field of experimentation: Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's first purely orchestral compositions were twelve string symphonies, student works composed between 1821 and 1823 which document the productive engagement of the young genius with the music of Bach and his sons.
Bruckner's first attempts in the field of orchestral music were a march and three other compositional exercises, which alongside a diverse range of instrumentation contain precursors of numerous characteristics, effects and figures which would develop to become typical of Bruckner's symphonic style. The programme is framed by Johannes Matthias Spergers „Ankunftssinfonie“ (Arrival symphony) and the final movement of Joseph Haydn's famous „Abschieds-Sinfonie“ (Farewell symphony), two contrasting and witty games with orchestral scoring.
This years keynote speaker is Wolf D. Prix, a Vienna architect.
Thomas Mandel (* 1965)
Jägerstätter for mixed voice choir a cappella (2018) [First performance]
Johannes Matthias Sperger (1750–1812)
Symphony No. 39 („Arrival symphony“) in F major(1796)
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809–1847)
String Symphony No. 10 in B minor, MWV N 10 (1823)
Anton Bruckner (1824–1896)
March in D minor, WAB 96 (1862)
Three Orchestral Pieces in Eb major, E minor and F major WAB 97,1–3 (1862)
Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)
Finale. Presto – Adagio, IV. Movement from: Symphony No. 45 („Farewell Symphony“) in F sharp minor, Hob. I:45 (1772)
V.I.P. – Voices in Progress
Stefan Kaltenböck | Choir Director
Oberösterreichischer Landesjugendchor
Alexander Koller | Choir Director
Oberösterreichisches Jugendsinfonieorchester
Gábor Káli | Conductor