The Bruckner Orchestra Linz (BOL), which is the sounding epicenter of this year's Bruckner Year, goes back to the old Linz Theatre Orchestra, but only received its name in 1967 and therefore has nothing to do with the Reich Bruckner Orchestra of the Nazi regime. The name and the geographical location mean that the BOL is committed to the work of Anton Bruckner like no other orchestra in the world. Bruckner's original sound has its home here. This only means something if you are on the trail of the sounds and scores every day. The dialect perhaps makes it easier to make the music dance and sing. Nevertheless, musicians from more than 25 nations play in the BOL, and the common dialect has to be found again and again. An orchestra is a special unit for creating togetherness and presence. We come together at the moment of a concert. Music manages to place us in the present. An orchestra only becomes a comprehensive body of sound with the listeners. A concert becomes a hearth. To listen to classical music, you usually have to sit down in a concert hall and be quiet.
On November 9, the BOL hosted an open day in its Boliversum. You had to do anything but sit still and were allowed to take a seat in the middle of the orchestra, in the middle of Bruckner's 7th Symphony, to get up close and personal with the players. Markus Poschner and the BOL offered a "star tasting" in the main foyer of the Musiktheater. There were also various workshops, guided tours, discussion formats and opportunities for speed dating with members of the BOL, who answered questions such as the most serious musical sins. In the music theater café, visitors could experience "Bruckner goes Wirtshaus" or the Atalante Quartet with the string quartet of the Genius Loci. The orchestral cosmos became an immediate and unique space of experience that attracted and inspired many people. Mediation means opening up spaces, and this year was particularly successful in many respects.
In his book "Harmonices Mundi" - the "Harmonics of the World" - Johannes Kepler teaches us how the planets revolve around the sun. The fifth book of this groundbreaking work was printed in Linz in 1619. These physical laws also apply to us humans; there is no cultural or national background to them. We have been sitting around the fireplace and making music for thousands of years. Music draws no boundaries, it encompasses. Music is our origin and our future.
