Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra kicks off Bruckner cycle

The Concertgebouw Orchestra’s Bruckner cycle gets under way on 17 December 2023 with a performance of Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 3 conducted by Iván Fischer. With this symphonic cycle, the Concertgebouw Orchestra looks forward to sharing with today’s audiences its love for this composer, born 200 years ago. Within a year and a half, the orchestra will perform the Symphonies Nos. 1 to 9 under the direction of nine renowned Bruckner experts. Iván Fischer is opening the concert on 17 December with an introduction, illustrated by live musical excerpts performed by the orchestra. 

  

On 14 and 15 December, Maestro Fischer is also conducting the Third Symphony – alongside Johann Sebastian Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D major, BWV 1069. 

  

Podcast 

In addition, the Concertgebouw Orchestra is releasing a nine-part podcast (in Dutch) entitled Negen gezichten van Bruckner (Nine Faces of Bruckner) in collaboration with Airborne. This is the first time the Concertgebouw Orchestra has produced a podcast. Jet Berkhout will be discussing the nine ‘numbered’ symphonies with Bruckner specialist Axel Meijer and a different member of the orchestra each time. Principal violist Michael Gieler joins the podcast to talk about the Third Symphony. Principal hornist Laurens Woudenberg is the guest in the second episode, dedicated to Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7, which the orchestra is performing in the Bruckner cycle on 19 January 2024.

  

The podcast is part of a campaign by the Concertgebouw Orchestra to bring Bruckner’s music to a wider audience. As part of the campaign, the French artist André Sanchez has created stunning collages for each of the nine symphonies which can regularly be seen in public spaces and on social media throughout the Bruckner cycle. 

  

The next stage of the Bruckner cycle 

The Concertgebouw Orchestra will continue its Bruckner cycle on 19 January with the Seventh Symphony under the direction of Myung-whun Chung. The orchestra’s artistic partner, Klaus Mäkelä, will conduct the Fifth Symphony on 2 May, and Christian Thielemann the Eighth on 20 June. The remaining five symphonies will be performed in the 2024–25 season under the direction of Andrew Manze (No. 2), Jaap van Zweden (No. 4), Vladimir Jurowski (No. 1), Simone Young (No. 6) and Riccardo Chailly (No. 9). 

  

All the information about the cycle is available at concertgebouworkest.nl/bruckner.