Andrew Manze strikes a passionate blow for Bruckner’ Second Symphony. ‘From the yearning, desolate opening to the self-assured, triumphant ending, the Second Symphony is a gem that has for too long been inexplicably overlooked, even by many Bruckner lovers’, the conductor says. Up to now, only five conductors have led the Concertgebouw Orchestra in this work – its last performance was conducted by Riccardo Chailly in 1992. Now Andrew Manze is taking up the gauntlet.
After moving to Vienna, Bruckner set to work on his Symphony No. 2, a work in which we can hear him finding his own voice. In addition to the long-drawn-out opening theme, folk dances and quotations from his own oeuvre, the influence of the Viennese Classics is clearly audible – that of Beethoven in particular, but Wagner and Schubert as well. Andrew Manze pairs Bruckner’s Second with the most serious of Schubert’s first six symphonies, the Fourth.
