Close-up: Widor and Bruckner

Anton Bruckner was born 200 years ago, in September 1824. Originally an organist, the Austrian would go on to become an ambitious composer of vocal church music and large-scale symphonies. Bruckner left behind only one mature chamber work, the great String Quintet. It embodies a whole world of ideas and, despite its symphonic proportions, is much more compositionally compact than his symphonies. You’d wish Bruckner had composed more chamber music! 

Twenty years later, Charles-Marie Widor was born in France; he, too, was both an organist and a composer. Yet unlike Bruckner, he wrote much chamber music in addition to his symphonies, including the Piano Quintet No. 2 – a work brimming with languorous, irresistible Romanticism. It’s amazing the work is not performed more often. 

Musicians of the Concertgebouw Orchestra perform their own programmes in the Recital Hall as part of the Close-up chamber music series. Each of these concerts is unique and performed only once as part of the series. It’s the very best way to experience the individual qualities of the orchestral musicians! These intimate concerts are organised by the Friends of the Concertgebouw and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.