Programme
Mark Simpson
›Israfel‹
Anton Bruckner
Symphony Nr. 5 in B flat major
Artists
Cornelius Meister Conductor
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Robin Ticciati unfortunately had to cancel his participation in the concerts due to illness. We are glad that Cornelius Meister has agreed to take over the conducting.
About the concert
Robin Ticciati, who conducted Anton Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony at his acclaimed DSO debut in autumn 2014, has continued his intensive study of the composer since taking over as Music Director of the orchestra, usually including one of his major works in the programme of every season. In this concert now follows the Fifth Symphony, which Bruckner himself considered to be his contrapuntal “masterpiece”. In fact, he succeeded here in an unrivalled manner in “suspending” the diversity of musical figures as a whole. The correspondences between the movements are striking: For example, Bruckner preceded both the first movement and the finale with a slow introduction; and the middle movements, contrasting in character, are linked by the use of an almost identical accompaniment structure. The reference to the last symphonies of Mozart and Beethoven is unmistakable. Like the latter in his Ninth, Bruckner allows the main themes of the preceding movements to recur in the finale; and like Mozart in his ‘Jupiter’ Symphony, Bruckner layers the most diverse motifs on top of each other in a fugue technique at the end of his Fifth. The religious dimension of the work is illustrated by a chorale theme, which is heard in a radiant brass setting at the climax of the final passage.
