| Sonntag 06 September 2026 | 20:00 |
| Gubaidulina, Sofia (1931-2025) | Viola Concerto | |
| Bruckner, Anton (1824-1896) | Symphonie Nr. 9 in d-Moll, WAB109 |
| Eivind Holtsmark Ringstad | Viola |
| London Symphony Orchestra | |
| Sir Antonio Pappano | Musikalische Leitung |
The composer Sofia Gubaidulina who died in March 2025 once admitted: “while I am composing, I pray”. The intensely fragile music of her Concerto for Viola and Orchestra oscillates between ‘down-to-earthness’ and ‘heavenly aspiration’. Anton Bruckner dedicated his final symphony to “the beloved God” and did not survive to complete the work. Sir Antonio Pappano presents Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 with ‘his’ London Symphony Orchestra in the increasingly performed four-movement version. The magnificent subsequently reconstructed finale reveals the essence of the music in which Bruckner was actually bidding farewell to his life on earth.
Music is for Sofia Gubaidulina the “most important form of resistance of mankind against spiritual decline”. Her religiously influenced works were included on the ‘black list’ in the Soviet Union. After the end of communist censorship, Gubaidulina relocated to a small village close to Hamburg where she remained for the rest of her life. In its “deepest sense”, music is a type of divine service according to the composer whose creative activity constantly revolved around spiritual issues. This is also evident in her Concerto for Viola and Orchestra performed here by the London Symphony Orchestra’s principal viola player, Eivind Ringstad. The composer comments: “I have always found the innate mysterious and veiled tone of the viola an enigma.”
Anton Bruckner was also profoundly religious, but never secure in his beliefs. His Symphony No. 9 begins mysteriously as if emerging out of nowhere. Each of the three suspenseful movements is an existential experience in itself. Work on his last symphony extended over a period of more than nine years before he died in Vienna at the age of 72 without having completed the final movement. The original sources are however far more abundant than had been known for a long time. It was therefore possible to reconstruct the finale in decades of painstakingly detailed work and strict adherence to music-forensic reconstruction methods. Will the dramatic tension in the third movement actually find its final resolution?
Tickets: €25 - 120
