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Symphony No. 7
Anton Bruckner

Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, François-Xavier Roth

Symphony No. 7

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Myrios Classics
UPC: 4260183510307
Catnr: MYR 030
Release date: 27 October 2023
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Label
Myrios Classics
UPC
4260183510307
Catalogue number
MYR 030
Release date
27 October 2023
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN

About the album

Loss, death, and redemption: Anton Bruckner went through a whirlwind of emotions during the two years in which he wrote the Seventh Symphony. The worst theatre fire in history left hundreds dead practically next door to his Vienna apartment; Bruckner would have been one of the victims, had he not decided at the last minute to stay at home instead of going to the opera. He still feared that the flames might engulf his apartment and his manuscripts. As he wrote shortly thereafter to a friend: “The inexpressible misery of so many souls makes the blood run cold!” In the Seventh Symphony, Bruckner incorporated all those unsettling impressions, as well as the mourning over the death of Richard Wagner, his admired “ideal.” The work, however, is by no means somber; its four movements trace an unswerving path toward redemption. The symphony’s premiere in 1884 in Leipzig was a resounding success and catapulted Bruckner for many years to the forefront of the European music scene. Leading up to the 200th anniversary of Bruckner’s birth in 2024, François-Xavier Roth and the Gürzenich Orchestra will release the Austrian composer’s complete symphonies in new recordings: the cycle is inaugurated on this CD with the Seventh Symphony. François-Xavier Roth’s approach to Bruckner is lean and light-footed; the sonority remains transparent at all times. He calls Bruckner “a trailblazer of Modernism.” Roth creates an unforgettable musical experience with the Gürzenich Orchestra, which has been closely associated with Bruckner’s symphonic output for well over a century. These recordings of acclaimed live concerts from the Cologne Philharmonie are all processed in audiophile high-resolution DXD technique.

Artist(s)

François-Xavier Roth

François-Xavier Roth is one of today’s most imaginative conductors and programmers, whether in his roles as General Music Director of the City of Cologne and founder of Les Siècles, or with leading orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, of which he is Principal Guest Conductor. A born communicator, he is a charismatic and persuasive advocate for classical music of every description. In Cologne, where he has directed both the Gürzenich Orchestra and the Opera since 2015, his programming is notable for its breadth and depth, including new commissions alongside Baroque and Romantic music. Roth upholds the orchestra’s pioneering heritage, which includes having given the world premieres of Mahler’s Third and Fifth Symphonies, the Brahms Double Concerto, Strauss’s Don Quixote and Till Eulenspiegel, and Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten. For...
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François-Xavier Roth is one of today’s most imaginative conductors and programmers, whether in his roles as General Music Director of the City of Cologne and founder of Les Siècles, or with leading orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, of which he is Principal Guest Conductor. A born communicator, he is a charismatic and persuasive advocate for classical music of every description.
In Cologne, where he has directed both the Gürzenich Orchestra and the Opera since 2015, his programming is notable for its breadth and depth, including new commissions alongside Baroque and Romantic music. Roth upholds the orchestra’s pioneering heritage, which includes having given the world premieres of Mahler’s Third and Fifth Symphonies, the Brahms Double Concerto, Strauss’s Don Quixote and Till Eulenspiegel, and Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten. For Cologne Opera he has led new productions of Benvenuto Cellini, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde, Salome, Béatrice et Bénédict and The Flying Dutchman.

His sense of musical exploration led him in 2003 to found Les Siècles, which performs contrasting programmes on modern and period instruments, often within the same concert. Together, they have toured Europe, China and Japan, appearing at the Berlin Musikfest, BBC Proms, Edinburgh and Enescu festivals. In 2019, Les Siècles became resident orchestra of Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing, where Roth is also Artistic Director, and in 2022 they took up their new residency at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.
Projects have included recreating the original sound of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé and Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. Currently, Les Siècles are celebrating their 20th anniversary with a series of European tours.

Roth is a champion of new music and has premiered works by Georg-Friedrich Haas and Hèctor Parra, and collaborated with composers such as Pierre Boulez, Wolfgang Rihm, Jörg Widmann, Helmut Lachenmann and Philippe Manoury. He has a leading role in the LSO’s Panufnik Composers Scheme, mentoring young emerging composers.

Engagement with new audiences is an essential part of Roth’s work, whether speaking from the podium or working with young people and amateurs. With the Festival Berlioz and Les Siècles, he founded the Jeune Orchestre Européen Hector Berlioz, which has its own collection of period instruments and last year performed Les Troyens à Carthage in Berlioz’s birthplace. In Cologne he has initiated a community orchestra and his Ohrenauf! youth programme was recipient of a Junge Ohren Produktion Award. His television series Presto! attracted weekly audiences of over three million in France.

Roth’s prolific award-winning discography includes the complete tone poems of Richard Strauss, Stravinsky ballets, Ravel and Berlioz cycles, Bruckner, Mahler and Schumann symphonies, and albums commemorating Debussy’s centenary. He was awarded the German Record Critics’ Honorary Prize 2020, the youngest conductor ever to receive it. For his achievements as musician, conductor, music director and teacher, François-Xavier Roth was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur.


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Composer(s)

Anton Bruckner

Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, strongly polyphonic character, and considerable length. Bruckner's compositions helped to define contemporary musical radicalism, owing to their dissonances, unprepared modulations, and roving harmonies. Bruckner was greatly admired by subsequent composers including his friend Gustav Mahler, who described him as 'half simpleton, half God'. Coming from a small farmer's village, Bruckner started his music education early, which he continued for a long time. Due to a mix of insecurity and eagerness to learn, Bruckner rushed from one study into another and he showed himself as a fanatic, but also remarkably talented,...
more

Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, strongly polyphonic character, and considerable length. Bruckner's compositions helped to define contemporary musical radicalism, owing to their dissonances, unprepared modulations, and roving harmonies. Bruckner was greatly admired by subsequent composers including his friend Gustav Mahler, who described him as "half simpleton, half God".

Coming from a small farmer's village, Bruckner started his music education early, which he continued for a long time. Due to a mix of insecurity and eagerness to learn, Bruckner rushed from one study into another and he showed himself as a fanatic, but also remarkably talented, student. He started composing at an early age, but he considered everything before his 39th as mere practice. Bruckner never became a stable composer and relied on in short phases of creative energy. After these phases, he would spend ages revising his work. In particular his symphonies received countless revisions and new editions, which was also due to his insecurity, he was quite sensitive to criticism.

The premier of his Third Symphony was a disaster: a large part of the audience left the concert hall and a devastating review appeared afterwards. Luckily, appreciation for his work grew and at the time of his death, even the great Brahms attended his funeral.


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