A report from the 2016 BrucknerTage Festival

Four Bruckner Sixth Symphonies in four days! That was the agenda for my scheduled trip to Austria this year.

Bruckner Journal Editor and Bruckner Society Treasurer Michael Cucka was my travelling companion as we attended concerts at the BrucknerTage and Salzburg Festivals.

The first concert was a performance of the Symphony No. 6 in the premiere performance of a version for chamber ensemble prepared by Matthias Giesen. It was a wonderful performance and it is great that we now have an excellent chamber orchestra version of the Symphony.

The next night was a performance at the Sala Terrena at St Florian of Karl Grunsky's two-piano transcription of the Sixth Symphony. Elias Gillesberger and Klaus Laczika were the pianists.

The full orchestral version was given on our third concert. Remy Ballot conducted the Upper Austrian Youth Symphony Orchestra at St Florian's Basilika in the Austrian premiere of Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs new edition of the score.

Finally, on day four Dr. Cucka and I traveled to Salzburg to attend a concert in the large Festspielhaus. Mariss Jansons conducted the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in our last sampling of the Bruckner Sixth.

One of the highlights of our trip was a short drive to Linz where we presented a Bruckner Society of America donation of one thousand dollars to the Bruckner Organ restoration project at the Linz Cathedral (Alte Dom). We were invited up to the organ loft where we literally stepped inside the organ to observe the restoration project. Individual donations can be made the cathedral's website, www.ignatiuskirche-linz.at

See the photo galley below:

Tour Photos