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It is a great honor for us to welcome the General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera as a guest conductor in Bamberg – and yet, this connects to the history of the orchestra, as Joseph Keilberth was also the chief conductor of Munich's first opera house during his time there. Vladimir Jurowski is making his debut with a work that was already celebrated after its premiere as "The Crown of Music of the 19th Century": Anton Bruckner's eighth symphony, which he completed in its first version in 1887 and dedicated to Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. The composer himself called the piece a "mystery," and the symphony sometimes receives the nickname "Apocalyptic" – and both descriptions are accurate: it combines devotional passages with folksy episodes, but also desperate depths with themes of death, and a hymn-like adagio. In addition, there are extremely energetic passages and a sometimes harsh, percussive atmosphere – which, however, ends brilliantly and confidently. It is no wonder that his contemporary, Richard Wagner, once praised his colleague: "I only know one who can reach Beethoven, and that is Bruckner." Overall, a powerful and highly romantic musical flow unfolds, which, like many other works by the Austrian composer, truly moves the listener, as legendary conductor Sergiu Celibidache once expressed it: "At the end of a Bruckner symphony, we experience a feeling of perfection – the feeling of having gone through everything."
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