Preparations for the first Upper Austrian KulturEXPO began a long time ago. Now one of the undisputed highlights of the Anton Bruckner Year 2024 has taken place. The 200th anniversary of the Upper Austrian composer's birth was commemorated with a "24-hour birthday party". In the spirit of the Upper Austrian KulturEXPO, Bruckner was celebrated in all corners of the country.
Congratulations on your 200th birthday, Anton!
The day began mystically and in keeping with the church musician Bruckner, at midnight in St. Mary's Cathedral in Linz. The cooperation project of the Upper Austrian KulturEXPO Anton Bruckner 2024 with the European Capital of Culture Bad Ischl Salzkammergut 2024 and numerous international partners "Silent Echoes: Dachstein" brought the sound installation by Bill Fontana from Notre-Dame and the Dachstein ice caves directly to the provincial capital.
The actual time of Bruckner's birth was celebrated at 4.30 a.m. in front of Anton Bruckner's birthplace in Ansfelden, and an improvised organ breakfast was served from 5 a.m. in the Old Cathedral, the place where Bruckner worked as an organist for 13 years. Anton Bruckner special stamps were available at the Vöcklabruck special post office.
In St. Florian, Bruckner was honored in the most original sense, with his own music: dancer and choreographer Silke Grabinger and her ensemble made the way to the basilica of the monastery a Brucknerian experience of a special kind. Then the first bars of the "Te Deum" rang out. The Bruckner Orchestra Linz under Markus Poschner thrilled the audience, as did the soloists Camilla Nylund, Christa Mayer, Piotr Beczala and Michael Volle as well as the Hard Choir (conductor: Alexander Koller) and the Linz Jeunesse Choir (conductor: Wolfgang Mayrhofer). Afterwards, Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 in D minor WAB 109 was performed in the packed Stiftsbasilika.
But the 24-hour birthday party for Anton Bruckner was far from over: The scavenger hunt "Anton and the Detectives" awaited the young audience in Kronstorf, Clemens Bauder's organ combined sound and play experience in Ansfelden and together with artist Peter Androsch, we went through the Kürnberg forest to his sound installation.
In Steyr, one of Bruckner's favorite cities, the curators gave a tour of the city museum and the Mesnerhaus, including a Bruckner must. The exhibition "How it all began. Bruckner's Visions" at St. Florian Abbey was presented with a special guided tour, during which the Artistic Director of the Upper Austrian KulturEXPO Anton Bruckner 2024, Norbert Trawöger, was able to share interesting facts and secrets about the jubilarian. Visitors were able to follow in Bruckner's footsteps in Windhaag, the place where Bruckner worked and lived as a young school assistant.
The Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst played Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 in Ansfelden in the evening, and the open-air concert was broadcast in Linz's Donaupark. In Kirchdorf, Bruckner's 200th birthday was duly celebrated with a sound installation by Sam Auinger. This September 4, 2024 came to a dignified end after 24 hours of partying with the opening of the Ars Electronica Festival in the Mariendom.
