Omaggio a Bruckner nel bicentenario della nascita
Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester
Kirill Petrenko conductor
Anton Bruckner
Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major Wab 105
On his debut at the Ravenna Festival, Kirill Petrenko confidently commemorates Anton Bruckner’s bicentenary with the composer’s grandest work, a masterpiece that, with its dynamic contrasts and expansive force, revolutionized the orchestra’s size and ambitions in an unprecedented way in the 19th century. The Symphony no. 5 is a bold confession of all the impulses and doubts of a composer who remained misunderstood and underappreciated for sixty years. Yet, the questions raised by this music still interrogate modern humanity on the eternal themes of time and life. The drafts of the Fifth Symphony date back to 1875, almost twenty years before its world premiere in Graz in 1894, which the composer was unable to attend. Bruckner died two years later, never having had the chance to listen to the fruit of his immense labour.
