Symphony concert 1

»Yes, where the trumpet begins the theme!« Too much Franconian beer had flowed for Anton Bruckner to be able to remember on the next morning which symphony Wagner, whom he revered, had decided in favour of. It was the third in D minor that Bruckner was allowed to dedicate to his great idol. However, it merits its epithet »Wagner Symphony« not least due to the echoes of various pieces by Richard Wagner that Bruckner put into the symphony; these are particularly evident in the original version. Bruckner’s concern in this symphony was an expression of life: »Listen!« Bruckner demanded from his biographer August Göllerich as, walking by night through Vienna, they passed a church and a tavern. »There in that house is dancing, and over there lies the master in his coffin — that's life!« György Ligeti also combines such extremes in his violin concerto, playfully linking »African music with fractal geometry, Maurits Escher’s illusions with ars subtilior of the 14th century«. Ligeti connects high and low, refinement and roughness in his highly virtuoso violin concerto, whose infernal challenges Christian Tetzlaff will take on together with François-Xavier Roth.