Ceremony and festive concert to mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Brucknerhaus Linz

Exactly 50 years to the day after its opening, the Brucknerhaus Linz is celebrating its milestone birthday with a new combination of ceremony and concert based on the festivities of 1974. After speeches and congratulatory addresses from prominent well-wishers from the worlds of culture, politics and society, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by star conductor Zubin Mehta, will perform the equally fitting and monumental 'birthday serenade' in the form of Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 in E major, which he completed in St. Florian on September 5, 1883, one day after his 59th birthday, and which was premiered in Leipzig on December 30, 1884, 140 years ago. As his ninth symphonic work, it finally gave Bruckner his long-awaited breakthrough as an internationally recognized composer, which was not even changed by the fact that the almost omnipotent critic Eduard Hanslick spoke disparagingly of a "giant symphonic snake" on the occasion of the first performance in the imperial city by the Vienna Philharmonic under Hans Richter on 21 March 1886.

This symphony, which is still Bruckner's most frequently performed work today, also brought luck to the Konzerthaus on the Danube named after him: it was performed by the Vienna Philharmonic and conducted by Herbert von Karajan on March 23, 19 74 as part of the festive concert to mark the opening of the Brucknerhaus Linz and has since been on the program more than thirty other times.

Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)

Symphony No. 7 in E major, WAB 107 (1881-83)

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Zubin Mehta | Conductor