Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 6 in A major

The 2015 Munich concert year began at the end of January with two highlights: two performances of Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony with Mariss Jansons conducting the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. The live recording, previously reserved exclusively for subscribers to the orchestra, is now being released on CD by BR-KLASSIK – an excellent interpretation of one of the most important compositions in the Late Romantic symphonic repertoire, conducted by an outstanding Bruckner connoisseur.

For a long time, Anton Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony (along with his Second) was regarded as something of a ›poor relation‹ in his immense symphonic oeuvre, even though the composer himself had moodily referred to it as his “boldest”. In view of its performance figures and recordings over the decades, this has now changed significantly, and the work has earned itself a permanent place in the repertoire.The Sixth Symphony forms part of the creative process of the two preceding symphonies, the “Romantic” Fourth (1874/1880) and the Fifth (1875), and is now seen as an important preliminary stage in Bruckner’s last great upsurge that followed the composition of the “Te Deum” (the initial sketches of which date from 1881) and culminated in the sublime grandeur of his final symphonies, the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth.

The “very solemn” Adagio of the Sixth Symphony, in particular, provided the model for the famous Adagio of the Seventh Symphony that followed it.

Bruckner worked on his Sixth Symphony in A major (WAB 106) from September 24, 1879 to September 3, 1881. He was only able to hear the complete work at one orchestra rehearsal during his lifetime because only the two middle movements (Adagio and Scherzo) were publicly performed in the concert hall of the Vienna Musikverein on February 11, 1883. The first public performance of the symphony as a whole followed only on February 26, 1899 – two and a half years after the composer’s death. It was conducted by Gustav Mahler, who had, however, made changes to the score, presenting it in a radically shortened version. Bruckner’s original version was heard for the first time in Stuttgart on March 14, 1901, and it would take until October 9th, 1935 for the Sixth Symphony to be first performed as Bruckner’s original score prescribed.

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Mariss Jansons conductor
Chief Conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Bavarian Radio Chorus from 2003 to 2019

1 CD highprice
Product Number: 900190
Total Time: 54’05 min.