About
"I'll raise a toast to the greatest symphonist after Beethoven's death!" This is what conductor Hermann Levi said at a reception following one of the first performances of Bruckner's seventh symphony. These were deeply moving words for the composer, for whom key moments in his early career included concerts featuring works by Beethoven. However, at the beginning of his career, he saw Beethoven's symphonies as an almost insurmountable benchmark, much like many others. He was constantly plagued by doubts and hesitated to seriously engage with the genre until he was over 40 years old – and then he had to endure numerous scathing reviews, be misunderstood, and be dismissed. Nevertheless, he persevered, and once said about this urge: "I keep getting caught in the act!" And fortunately, the longed-for success with his seventh symphony gave him a tremendous boost in motivation – because shortly thereafter, in the summer of 1884, he began working on his eighth symphony. He would have undoubtedly been delighted by the reactions to this monumental work, as it was said: "This symphony is the creation of a giant, and surpasses all other symphonies by the master in terms of intellectual depth, fertility, and grandeur. It was a complete victory of light over darkness, and a storm of enthusiasm broke out with elemental force." The work will be presented by the symphony orchestra of the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation at its now-traditional performance in our concert hall – under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst, whose career has long been marked by his engagement with Bruckner.
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