Bruckner's 9th

Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 is an enigmatic masterpiece. Bruckner worked on the symphony until his death in 1896, but he never managed to complete the finale. The three surviving movements nevertheless form a grand musical progression in which deep religious gravity, colossal blocks of sound and moments of fragile beauty stand side by side. Bruckner dedicated the symphony to "the dear Lord", and the music is experienced as an insistent gaze towards something greater than ourselves. Bruckner's Austrian compatriot Alban Berg composed his Violin Concerto, titled To the Memory of an Angel, in 1935. The angel is the young Manon Gropius (daughter of Alma Mahler and Walter Gropius), who died at just 18 years of age. The music is a requiem disguised as a violin concerto, in which Berg's expressionist tonal language turns grief and helplessness inside out. But the music also quotes folk melodies and Bach's death-marked chorale Es ist genug. And it is precisely the chorale - the musical part of a hymn - that is the starting point for the Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg's orchestral work Corale, which is like a modern echo of the classical chorale tradition. For the performance of Bruckner's symphony, an extra-large version of Copenhagen Phil takes part, supplemented by musicians from Det Kgl. Danske Musikkonservatorium. The violin soloist is the Danish Anna Agafia Egholm, who with her intense musical presence gives voice to Berg's blend of clarity and pain. Programme: Lindberg / Corale Berg / Violin Concerto, To the Memory of an Angel Bruckner / Symphony No. 9

• Solist: Anna Agafia Egholmviolin

RECORDINGS OF THE WORKS

Alban Berg: Violin Concerto

Watch on NRK TV (2021)All 2 parts on KulturbaseMore recordings on Kulturbase

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