Celebratory Final Concert with works by Anton Bruckner and Alfred Schnittke
On the way to a concert in the Brucknerhaus on 10th December 1977, Alfred Schnittke drove to St. Florian to visit the place which played such a significant role for Anton Bruckner and provided his final resting place beneath the organ of the monastery's basilica: „The entrance to Bruckner's grave was closed. But it was still an unforgettable experience – the cold, dark Baroque church full of the tense mystery of twilight, a small, invisible choir behind the wall at an invisible evening mass (,missa invisibilia‘), no-one nearby (…).“ When Schnittke was commissioned by the BBC Symphony Orchestra a year later to write a work dedicated to Bruckner, he composed his Symphony No.2, to which he gave the title St. Florian and in which, following the individual sections of the Ordinarium Missae using a chamber choir, he translated this experience with great intensity into sound. The Bruckner Orchestra Linz and the Bach Choir Salzburg under Markus Poschner perform Schnittke's work again 45 years later in the place of its spiritual origin, and in an intriguing dialogue juxtapose this music dedicated to Bruckner with his own „Adagio No. 2“ in Eb major written for the Symphony No. 3 in D minor
Anton Bruckner (1824–1896)
„Adagio Nr. 2“ in Eb major from the Symphony Nr. 3 in D minor, WAB 103 (1876)
Alfred Schnittke (1934–1998)
Symphony Nr. 2 (St. Florian) for Chamber Choir and large Orchestra (1979–80)
Johannes Euler | Countertenor
Domen Fajfar | Tenor
Bachchor Salzburg
Bruckner Orchester Linz
Markus Poschner | Conductor
