Concertgebouw Orchestra plays Bruckner and Messiaen

Simone Young

A deeply religious organist and a composer with an extremely personal sound world that was far ahead of his time: that was Anton Bruckner. The same was true a century later for Olivier Messiaen. Simone Young forges a musical-spiritual bond between Bruckner's Sixth Symphony and Messiaen's wonderful symphonic meditations on the Ascension.

Bruckner's Sixth

The Sixth Symphony is shorter, lighter in tone and less monumental than Bruckner's other symphonies. 'Die Sechste ist die keckste' (the boldest), Bruckner himself thought. The third movement is remarkable: instead of the lively, Ländler-like folk dances that characterize his scherzos, Bruckner wrote a somewhat dark, ghostly movement, in which a theme from his Fifth turns up in the Trio. Conductor Simone Young: 'In his symphonies Bruckner experienced the drama and emotions that he could not find in his own life.'