Maestro Victorien Vanoosten, a favourite of Lithuanian audiences, and the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra (LNSO) brave Anton Buckner’s Eighth Symphony, the composer’s most famous symphony, which contemporaries have suggested to call The Apocalyptic. The Austrian composer’s most majestic work, performed by the largest line-up orchestra, will be presented at the National Philharmonic Concert Hall on 26 April.
Adeodatas Tauragis, one of Lithuania’s foremost musicologists, wrote: “Dozens of books have been written about Anton Bruckner, the most famous Austrian symphonist of the second half of the 19th century. But how differently his work is regarded! Some consider his symphonies to be the most significant after Beethoven, full of noble feelings and spiritual renewal, while others accuse Bruckner of being verbose, rhetorical and prosaic. There are enough arguments on both sides, but the number of voices of criticism is diminishing. What is clear is that the Schubert-Bruckner-Mahler oeuvre forms a coherent lineage of so-called ‘song symphonism’, a distinctive and significant branch of symphonic music in the second half of the 19th century. Bruckner’s music impresses with its epic monumentality, powerful sound and majestic ‘gothic’ forms. To reproach him for his long works is to reproach him for being Bruckner…”
True, his Eight Symphony is the largest and longest (its duration is around an hour and a half), and it is also the largest in terms of orchestral line-up. It was composed and revised between 1884 and 1892. Like all Bruckner’s symphonies, the Eighth can be described as a ‘cathedral of sound’, which took time to emerge, and its grandeur makes a lasting impression.
Bruckner was only recognised as a composer after the performance of his Seventh Symphony in 1884, at the age of fifty, before which his works were often rejected by orchestras as ‘unplayable’, but the premiere of his Eighth Symphony in Vienna in 1882 was finally a triumph. Audience was simply overwhelmed by the work’s grandeur, depth of thought and strength of spirit, and reviewers wrote that it was “the greatest symphony of the 19th century”. The contemporaries have suggested to call it The Apocalyptic.
“When you make art, you connect with the divine. I feel it most often with the LNSO”, said French maestro Vanoosten, the LNSO’s principal guest conductor since 2024, who will be at the helm for Bruckner. It is Bruckner’s music that should express this creative thought of the conductor in all its grandeur.
Vanoosten has been awarded the Order of the French Republic for his services to French culture. He is welcome in many venues around the world as an artistic and music director of the Toulon Opera and the Neuchâtel Symphony Ensemble. He has had a distinguished international career conducting at major opera houses in Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt, Zurich and Toulouse. He has collaborated with renowned musicians such as Lang Lang, Jussen brothers, Gilles Apap, Patrizia Ciofi, Emmanuel Pahud, Bruce Liù, Rolando Villazón, Karine Deshayes and others.
The concert Bruckner Imprints. LNSO, Victorien Vanoosten will take place on Saturday, 26 April at 19.00 at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Concert Hall. For full information on the concerts of the LNPhS 84th season, please visit www.nationalphilharmonic.lt LNPhS 84th concert season is sponsored by NORFA.
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