Even at school, I was surprised that the alphabet, in its archaic orderliness, starts almost exclusively from the „a“. Why not start at the back, which is not a back? If you stand on your head, you sometimes only then fall on your feet. I have a lot of faith in words that begin with „z“, such as affection, agreement, trust or listening, promise, belonging, access, and especially coincidence. Zuwörter are human words. And I also think that in our „me“ times, we need to expect more of ourselves and the „we“; there is a lot of courage in that, it resonates with confidence and the future.
The Regens chori from Enns, organist, composer and private music teacher Leopold von Zenetti played a decisive role in Bruckner’s compositional development. From Kronstorf, the young Bruckner often visited Zenetti up to three times a week in Enns, eight kilometers away, which meant a four-hour walk there and back! Zenetti’s lessons gave him confidence in his own work. Zenetti was at the beginning of Bruckner’s beginning to understand himself as a composer. And we are at the end of an incredibly polyphonic Bruckner year.
In the beginning is the end, and this also applies in a peculiar way to Bruckner’s symphonies. They seem to have begun before they start and end punctually where they began. There are many beginnings in the end of this year. The Brucknerization of the country has succeeded in a breadth, depth and inventive diversity that hardly anyone would have expected of us and the birthday boy. Our justifiably criticized preparatory slogan „Bruckner is coming home“ has indeed come true; never before has Anton Bruckner and his music been such a topic in his homeland and the world. In a comprehensive movement and passion in mediation, we have shown that culture is a network space of imaginative possibilities and futures for finding each other, inventing common ground, coming together or being amazed. Art and music playfully lead us into the magical human field of creative connection. Bruckner was and is our ingenious accomplice and I dare say that we have rediscovered or rediscovered the „to“ in many ways. The „too“ is in and of us!
Back to the imposition. In the box seat of world events, where we are allowed to live, it is reasonable for the ‚we‘ to make an effort; it doesn’t take much courage at all. But gratitude for the gift of resonance and everything that is and was and will be possible. First and foremost, we never stop starting, from the front or the back, from below or above: The main thing is to start
