Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 1 is rarely performed. And that’s a shame, since this delightful journey through the Austrian countryside of Bruckner’s youth is a comprehensive introduction to his symphonic œuvre. Conductor Vladimir Jurowski considers it ‘an amazing artistic achievement to write such a symphony ten years before the composition of Brahms’ First Symphony (…). Bruckner takes Schubert's lyrical symphonic style to its extremes and even beyond them. One can clearly sense the essence of all later symphonies by Bruckner in this one, as if contained in a nutshell.’
At the premiere of Bruckner’s First Symphony in Linz, audiences were above all amazed that their city organist could write symphonies. Shortly afterwards, the ambitious Bruckner moved to Vienna, the city of his predecessors Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, whose Viennese classical influences are still palpable in his Symphony No. 1. Vladimir Jurowski juxtaposes Bruckner’s First with Mozart’s penultimate symphony, the tempestuous No. 40 in G minor, a forerunner of Romanticism.
Jurowski has been a popular guest conductor with the Concertgebouw Orchestra since 2006, one with a versatile repertoire – indeed, this is the first time he will be conducting Bruckner in Amsterdam.
