Festive final concert with works by Lili Boulanger and Ethel Smyth
The final concert of the International Brucknerfest Linz 2023 with the Bruckner Orchestra Linz conducted by Han-Na Chang will once again take place against the imposing backdrop of the interior of the St. Florian Abbey Basilica. The programme includes two monumental sacred works by two of the most important female composers of their time. Lili Boulanger, who was the first woman to win the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1913 after only one year of study, completed her Psalm 130 in 1917, only a few months before she died of the consequences of a chronic illness at the age of 24. In 1893, the year of Boulanger's birth, the first performance of Ethel Smyth's Mass in D major took place at London's Royal Albert Hall at the behest of none other than Britain's Queen Victoria. The enormous success left most critics so perplexed that they could not help but both praise and qualify Smyth's talent: "This work easily places the composer [...] at the head of all those who belong to her sex. What is particularly striking about the Mass is the complete absence of the elements commonly associated with feminine music; it is thoroughly masculine [...]."
Lili Boulanger (1893–1918)
Psalm 130 ("Du fond de l'abîme") for two solos, mixed choir and orchestra (1914-17)
Ethel Smyth (1858–1944)
Mass in D major for four solos, mixed choir and orchestra (1891)
Christina Landshamer | Soprano
Florence Losseau | Mezzo-Soprano
Martin Mitterrutzner | Tenor
David Steffens | Bass
Salzburg Bach Choir
Bruckner Orchester Linz
Han-Na Chang | Conductor
