NOSPR / Arming / Bruckner - NOSPR

This concert will have two emotional culminations in the adagio tempo. The first one was written by Lekeu as an epitaph for his beloved teacher César Franck. Although the composer did not express such an intention explicitly, he put a quote from Georges Vanor’s poem "Les fleurs pâles du souvenir” [The Pale Flowers of Memory] into the score.  The second one was composed as a tribute to Richard Wagner. “I was crying, crying without end. And I wrote truly mournful music for the Master” – this was how Bruckner described his work on the adagio from the Symphony No. 8. This is one of his few works which enjoyed immediate success both with critics and audiences, even though its monumental form, extensive phrase, gigantic sonic volume, and pathos fit into the Brucknerian idiom perfectly. But there is also something else here: a moving Schubert-like lyricism. Live Bruckner is still a rarity in Poland. Let us enjoy the performance all the more!

Piotr Matwiejczuk