Bruckner and Messiaen

Anton Bruckner was a deeply religious organist, as well as a composer whose highly personal sound was far ahead of its time. The same was true of Olivier Messiaen a century later. Simone Young forges a musical and spiritual bond between Bruckner’s Symphony No. 6 and Messiaen’s exquisite symphonic meditations on the Ascension.

The Sixth Symphony is shorter, lighter in tone and less monumental than Bruckner’s other symphonies. ‘Die Sechste ist die keckste’ (the Sixth is the sauciest), Bruckner himself once wrote. Perhaps most remarkable is the third movement: instead of the lively, Ländler-like folk dances that characterise his scherzos, Bruckner wrote a rather dark and eerie movement here, with a theme from his Fifth appearing in the Trio. Conductor Simone Young: ‘In his symphonies, Bruckner lived the drama and the emotions he could not find in his personal life.’